Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life Book

Acknowledgements     vii
Maps     vii
Introduction - Higher Bockhampton     1
A railway bore him through     11
One who lived and died where he was born     25
She who upheld me and I     46
'The playground of TH's childhood'     61
His kindred they, his sweetheart I     74
One who walks west, a city-clerk     92
If but some vengeful god would call to me     108
Red roses and smug nuns     124
Believed-in things     136
Rising and falling with the tide     149
With magic in my eyes     166
That there should have come a change     186
Wasted were two souls in their prime     210
Lifelong to be I thought it     228
Some hid dread afoot     244
No such bower will be known     258
Taking the universe seriously     270
Life-loyalties     287
If the true artist ever weeps     304
That we had all resigned for love's dear ends     321
No balm for all your sorrow     342
The day goeth away     356
Few persons are more martial than I     377
We kissed at the barrier     394
The mind goes back to the early times     409
The sustaining power of poetry     422
No mean power in the contemporary world     438
Wistlessness     450
Conclusion: Max Gate     465
Notes     477
Further Reading     501
Index     507