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‘GRAVER
THINGS...BRAVER
THINGS’: HARDY’S
WAR POETRY
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Hardy’s novels of ‘Character and Environment’ and his 1912–13 poems continue
to dominate his reputation, and none of them seem to have much to do with war.
The few military characters in the well-known novels, such as Sergeant Troy in
Far From the Madding Crowd(1874), align themselves with other seductive and
deceitful men—Edred Fitzpiers inThe Woodlanders(1887) and Alec d’Urberville in
Tess of the d’Urbervilles(1891)—suggesting greater interest in the male stereotype
than the military one. The exception to this rule isThe Trumpet-Major,Hardy’s
1879 historical novel set during the Napoleonic Wars; the book is not highly
regarded, however, and has even been dismissed as a minor aberration.The Dynasts
(1904–8), Hardy’s ‘Epic-Drama’ of Napoleon, has usually been treated, until
recently at least, as a major aberration. Although Hardy made frequent allusions
in his ghosted autobiography,The Life of Thomas Hardy(1928, 1930) to his long-
standing fascination with the Napoleonic Wars, the low critical reputation ofThe
Dynastshas made it easy to assume he was being protective towards his most
significant artistic failure.^1
(^1) This is an anachronistic view, sinceThe Dynastswas a success in Hardy’s lifetime, particularly
during the war years when he wrote hisLife.