Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles is the penultimate collection of poems by English poet Thomas Hardy, and was published in 1925. A miscellaneous collection, Human Shows included old, new, and updated poems.I. Ousby ed, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (Cambridge 1995) p. 460
Themes and tone The most cheerful of Hardy's collections, Human Shows has been seen as reflecting something of an Indian summer on its author's part:J. C/ Brown, A Journey into Thomas Hardy's Poetry (London 1989) p. 241 he himself, in his introduction to Winter Words, feared that he had been “too liberal in selecting flippant, not to say farcical, pieces into the collection”.D. Wright ed., Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems (Penguin 1978) p. 450 A pastoral tone prevails, often dramatising characters from Hardy's fiction, and at times Hardy even seems to burlesque some of his own tragic themes—of ironic accidents and patterned fate—as in the sketch "Snow in the Suburbs".J. C. Brown, A Journey into Thomas Hardy's Poetry (London 1989) p. 211-2
The collection includes more serious poems as well—memories of friends and family gone, as well as of his first wife Emma.I. Ousby ed, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (Cambridge 1995) p. 460 "Alike and Unalike" records the beginning dissension in his marriage with his attachment to Florence Henniker;M. Seymour-Smith, Thomas Hardy (London 1994) p. 460=1 and "Nobody Comes" records his lonely wait for his second wife Florence Dugdale to return after an operation in London.J. C. Brown, A Journey into Thomas Hardy's Poetry (London 1989) p. 118
See also Thomas Hardy's Wessex
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