WINTER WORDS IN VARIOUS MOODS AND METRES—Thomas Hardy— Macmillan ($2.00).
THE EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS HARDY 1840-1891 —Florence Emily Hardy — Macmillan ($5.00).
Thomas Hardy, famed apostle of gloom, lives up to his reputation in this volume of poems posthumously published. But the very gloom makes for stark beauty.
In the introductory note Hardy shies at critics who unanimously pronounce him "gloomy and pessimistic." But the generality is at least excusable, such is the lugubriousness of his humor: item, "The Three Tall Men" of the present volume....