Editions of Hardy's Poetry

by Dennis Taylor


Like Hardy's body, Hardy's poetry lies in two places. One is the Westminster Abbey of Hardy editions, Samuel Hynes's The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982-1995). But a reader's heart might lie with the other, James Gibson's The Variorum Edition of the Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy (London: Macmillan, 1979). If there was an oddity in Hardy's burial, there is an oddity in Hardy's editions, both variorum editions. Most major poets get only one.

The more official edition now is the Hynes edition, which presents a meticulous and comprehensive listing of all Hardy's variants, published, unpublished, and deleted. Gibson, who includes punctuation and line indentation variants, omits most of the deletions, and he did not have access to a few of the manuscripts. So Hynes, who also found some additional printed editions, is the one to cite eventually for scholarly purposes. But as in any such works of incessant detail, there are occasional mistakes and omissions; and so both need to be consulted.

The Hynes edition is in five volumes, the first three for the poetry, the last two for Hardy's dramatic works. (Hynes's edition of The Dynasts and The Queen of Cornwall is a wonderful addition to Hardy scholarship and had long been sorely needed.) For the poetry, Hynes takes as his starting point the first volume editions (and the holograph for the last volume, Winter Words) and seeks to incorporate the last revisions he estimates Hardy to have made. His final text, therefore, is eclectic, dependent on his judgment of what constitutes Hardy's last revised version of a given poem.

Gibson uses as his authoritative text Hardy's 1928 Collected Poems (with an occasional nod to corrections in the 1930 edition). These Collected Poems, in editions of 1919-20, 1923, 1925, 1928 (the first to include all eight of Hardy's volumes of poetry), and 1930 (including minor corrections and revisions made by Hardy before his death in 1928), are sometimes still available in sales and stores, as are the poetic volumes in the various collected editions of Hardy works, such as the Wessex Edition (1912-1931) and the Mellstock Edition (1919-20). These assorted texts were the basis of Hardy scholarship until 1976 when Gibson published his "New Wessex Edition" of the Complete Poems, which then became the text used in the 1979 Variorum. Thus the importance of Gibson's editions: they ended the long lack of a careful scholarly text. The advantage of Gibson's choice of the 1928-1930 text is that it give us a major public edition, the one probably known by Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Larkin, and all variants are variants from that text. The disadvantage of Gibson is that some changes, made by Hardy in other places but not included in the Collected Poems, may deserve to be presented as the established text. An example is the variants present in the Wessex Edition which were overlooked in later Collected Poems. And in addition to these two branches of the family tree of Hardy texts, the Wessex edition and the Collected Poems, there are revisions to be found in other places--in magazines, in volume appearances, in various other collected editions, in his own copies of his books in which he made revisions, in letters he sent to editors, etc. And these various revisions were never sorted out by Hardy into one final definitive text. Hynes valiantly tries to do what Hardy never did, construct this definitive text, and in doubtful cases makes choices according to his "critical judgment and . . . sense of what is characteristic of Hardy's mature style"; but he takes us away from the clarity, admittedly deceptive, of a single familiar published text.

There are many advantages to Hynes’ edition. He includes the illustrations to Wessex Poems. As said, his listing of variants is comprehensive and includes deletions. His explanatory notes are sensible and helpful. One inconvenience is that while each volume has its own index there is no comprehensive index of all the poems. However by the time you get to need Hynes, you perhaps will not need an index to locate poems.

Hardy would have loved Gibson's 1976 edition of the Complete Poems. The volume is attractively printed on generous pages that give a good presentation of the aesthetic shape of the poems, much as they are presented in Hardy's original volumes. (For the most part Gibson does not need to divide Hardy's long lines.) The Gibson edition is usually available in paperback, and has fulfilled Hardy's desire that his poems be affordable to everyone. I have come to regret the numbering of the poems, both because it adds a non-Hardy element to the page and because it makes poem reference confusing (Is that poem number 73 or page 73?). The poems are short enough to be referred to by page number. There is technological mastery in the way the 1976 edition was then moved to the even more ample pages of Gibson's Variorum in 1979. Both Gibson and Hynes have a concluding section of "Uncollected Poems" (to which Hynes adds a new piece, "The Sound of Her," from a Purdy typescript). But Gibson makes Hardy's first uncollected poem, "Domicilium," no. 1 in his edition, so that Hardy's first poem in his first volume becomes no. 2. But enough about the poem numbers. Gibson's index, of course, is comprehensive of all the poems.

Because of the attractiveness, care, and convenience of the Gibson edition, many published works use it for citation purposes. The same poem number works for both the scholarly variorum and the popular standard edition, one or both of which is usually on the shelf of academic readers. Other authors of course prefer to cite the Hynes edition because of its greater comprehensiveness and its editorial choices.

There are many Hardy selected editions, including one published in his lifetime and sometimes still available: Selected Poems in the Golden Treasury series (London: Macmillan, 1916), chosen by Hardy, and revised by him into Chosen Poems (London: Macmillan, 1929). These, and the G. M. Young edition of a new Selected Poems (London: Macmillan, 1940), and the various Collected Poems held the field during the long ignorance of Hardy's true poetic stature, until John Crowe Ransom published a Selected Poems (London: Macmillan 1961), made into a Collier Books Edition in 1966 and then widely used in both undergraduate and graduate classrooms. Thus, I repeat, the importance of the Gibson Complete Poems in 1976. My test for a selected edition is whether it includes "Copying Architecture in an Old Minster"; all fail except Tim Armstrong's excellently annotated Selected Poems (London: Longman, 1993)--and an earlier slim selection by James Reeves and Robert Gittings, Selected Poems (London: Heinemann, 1981). With the lapsing of the Hardy copyright, the number of selected editions is "too menny" to be enumerated. That's good news, of course. But when the paperback of Gibson's Complete Poems is in stock, why buy anything else?

I once noted the oddity that Hardy had two variorums and no concordance, while Hopkins had two concordances and no variorum. But now the need for a Hardy concordance is less because his collected poems (1930 edition) have been included in the Chadwyck-Healey Poetry data base (only the CD edition); and now a "Poetry Concordance" by Dr. Martin Ray is available in a CD edition to be ordered from the Thomas Hardy Association web page. Up to now the only approach to a general concordance to Hardy's works was the Japanese magnum opus, A Thomas Hardy Dictionary, ed. Mamoru Osawa, Yoshinoshin Goto, et al (Tokyo, Japan, 1984).

In sum, Hynes's The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy is the most comprehensive scholarly variorum edition of Hardy's poetry. But it should always be cross-checked against Gibson's The Variorum Edition of the Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. And for reading Hardy at the beach or on the train, always carry Gibson's edition of the Complete Poems.

 

Note: For in-depth reviews of vol I of the Hynes edition, see Robert Schweik, "In Wand'ring Mazes Found: Hardy's Poetic Texts," in Review, ed. James O. Hoge and James L.W. West III, Vol. 6 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1984), pp. 171-185; and Simon Gatrell, in Thomas Hardy Annual, no. 3, ed. Norman Page (London: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 147-55.

 
Appendix:  Some telling differences between
Hynes Complete Poetical Works and Gibson Complete Poems
    
HynesGibson
"'In vision I roamed'"

. . . Universe trackless, distant, drear		"'In vision I roamed'"

. . . Universe taciturn and drear
"In a Wood"

Cankering in blank despair		"In a Wood"

Cankering in black despair
"Nature's Questioning"

As though the master’s way

Through the long teaching day		"Nature's Questioning"

As though the master's ways

Through the long teaching days
"The Impercipient"

O, doth a bird beshorn of wings		"The Impercipient"

O, doth a bird deprived of wings
"The Problem"

. . . the few who listen intently with strained and eager and reaching sense		"The Problem"

. . . the few who hearken intently and carry an eagerly upstrained sense
"On a Fine Morning"

With its iriséd embowment		"On a Fine Morning"

With its iris-hued embowment
"The Well-Beloved"
 
I went by star and planet shine

     Towards my Dear's abode

At Jordon, there to make her mine

     When the next noon-tide glowed.		"The Well-Beloved"
 
I went by star and planet shine

     Towards the dear one's home

At Kingsbere, there to make her mine

     When the next sun upclomb.
"The Dame of Athelhall"

. . . and the port appeared in view		"The Dame of Athelhall"

. . . and the port uprose to view
"The Church-Builder"

The church projects a battled shade		"The Church-Builder"

The church flings forth a battled shade
"The Ruined Maid"

‘A polish is gained with one’s ruin,’ said she.		"The Ruined Maid"

‘Some polish is gained with one’s ruin,’ said she.
"The Supplanter"

A year: and he is travelling back

     To one who wastes in clay;

From dawn till eventide he fares

     Along the wintry way,

From dawn till eventide he bears

     A wreath of blooms and bay.		"The Supplanter"

A year beholds him wend again

       To her who wastes in clay;

From day-dawn until eve he fares

       Along the wintry way

From day-dawn until eve repairs

       Towards her mound to pray.
"Shut out that Moon"

She bears too much the guise she wore		"Shut out that Moon"

She wears too much the guise she wore
"Misconception"

. . . Those moils you fear for me

My nature revels in!		"Misconception"

. . . Those moils you fear for me

I find most pleasure in!
"The Upper Birch-Leaves"

--But that you follow		"The Upper Birch-Leaves"

--But that you follow
"In a Whispering Gallery"

And from this gaunt gallery		"In a Whispering Gallery"

And this gaunt gray gallery
"In the Garden"

Shading its finger where		"In the Garden"

Throwing a shade to where
"Afterwards"

Till they swell again, as they were a new bell’s . . .		"Afterwards"

Till they rise again, as they were a new bell’s . . .

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