Page "learned" Paragraph 1111

There are two ways of getting at a poet's development: through his dated poems, and through the revisions which he made in later editions of his work.

About a quarter of Hardy's poems carry an appended date line, usually the year of completion, but sometimes inclusive years ( `` 1908 - 1910 '' ) or two separate dates when Hardy worked on the poem ( `` 1905 and 1926 '' ) or an approximate date ( `` During the War '' ).

These dates are virtually the only clues we have to the chronology of the poems, since the separate volumes are neither chronological within themselves nor in relation to each other.

With the exception of Satires Of Circumstance, each volume contains dated poems ranging over several decades ( Winter Words spans sixty-one years ) ; ;

the internal organization rarely has any chronological order, except in obvious groups like the `` Poems of Pilgrimage '', the `` Poems of 1912 - 13 '', and the war poems.