Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January
1928) was an English novelist and poet. A
Victorian realist, in the tradition of George
Eliot, he was also influenced both in his
novels and poetry by Romanticism,
especially by William Wordsworth.[1] Charles
Dickens is another important influence on
Thomas Hardy.[2] Like Dickens, he was also
highly critical of much in Victorian society,
though Hardy focussed more on a declining
rural society.
While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, and
regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first
collection was not published until 1898. Initially
therefore he gained fame as the author of such novels
as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of
Casterbridge (1886),Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891),
and Jude the Obscure (1895). However, since the 1950s
Hardy has been recognized as a major poet, and had a
significant influence on The Movement poets of the
1950s and 1960s, including Phillip
Larkin and Elizabeth Jennings.[3
When I set out for Lyonnesse,
A hundred miles away,
The rime was on the spray,
And starlight lit my lonesomeness
When I set out for Lyonnesse
A hundred miles away.
What would bechance at Lyonnesse
While I should sojourn there
No prophet durst declare,
Nor did the wisest wizard guess
What would bechance at Lyonnesse
While I should sojourn there.
When I came back from Lyonnesse
With magic in my eyes,
All marked with mute surmise
My radiance rare and fathomless,
When I came back from Lyonnesse
With magic in my eyes!
Thomas Hardy
summary
when the poet set out for Lyonnesse it was winter season
the foliage of the trees was covered with frost he had to
travel very far. The place was hundred miles away
2. No prophet or the wisest wizard could guess what
experience the poet would have at Lyonnesse . He himself
couldn’t predict his future.
3. When the poet returned from Lyonnesse his eyes were
bright with happiness. It was as if he had experienced a
revelation of life.everyone silently noticed that the poet’s
happiness was of a rare quality and which cannot be
mesured.
1.
The levelled churchyard
 The Levelled Churchyard
"O passenger, pray list and catch
Our sighs and piteous groans,
Half stifled in this jumbled patch
Of wrenched memorial stones!
"We late-lamented, resting here,
Are mixed to human jam,
And each to each exclaims in fear,
'I know not which I am!‘
“The wicked people have annexed
The verses on the good;
A roaring drunkard sports the text
Teetotal Tommy should!
Where we are huddled none can
trace,
And if our names remain,
They pave some path or p-ing place
Where we have never
 "There's not a modest maiden elf
But dreads the final Trumpet,
Lest half of her should rise herself,
And half some local strumpet!
"From restorations of Thy fane,
From smoothings of Thy sward,
From zealous Churchmen's pick and plane
Deliver us O Lord! Amen!"
GLOSSARY
 LYONNESSE : THE MYTHICAL BIRTH PLACE OF SIR







TRISTRAM, IN ENGLAND ,BELIVED TO HAVE BEEN
SUBMERGED BY THE SEA ;HERE AN IMAGINARY PLACE
Rime :frost
The spray : leaves and branches of trees ;foliage
Durst:dared
Bechance:happen/or chance to happen
Sojourn: stay
Radiance: glow
Lonesomeness: a disposition toward being alone