I am afraid my column for this issue may turn out to be a lecture. It may even degenerate into a rant. The inspiration for it came to me about three weeks ago. I had recently introduced a selection of poems for the “Poetry for Pleasure” group, which meets at the Cornerstone Community Centre. In fact my wife, Nikki, read the introduction for me, because I was temporarily unable to speak. My choices were based on the teachings of a great literary critic, the late F. R. Leavis. He was among the first to direct our attention to the outstanding quality of the poetry written by Thomas Hardy (pictured) You may be surprised to hear that he wrote hundreds of poems. In fact during his adult life he was working on a poem almost every day. Continue reading Thomas Hardy →