Earth never grieves!-
Will not, when missed am I
     Raking up leaves.

--Thomas Hardy, Autumn in King's Hintock Park



I’m closer to Thomas Hardy the poet more than Thomas Hardy the novelist.

A haunting poem of Hardy I keep going back again and again is Friends Beyond.

It begins thus:

"William Dewy, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at

          plough

   Robert’s kin and John’s, and Ned’s,

And the Squire, and Lady Susan, lie in Mellstock

           churchyard now!

The poet recalls all his dead friends who don't anymore give a damn about matters which we the living keep worrying about.

The dead murmer mildly to the poet that they no longer need the corn and clothing, feel of old terrestrial stress... even fear of death has bygone them…

According to Philip Larkin Hardy gave most well known poets of today the confidence to feel in their own way. 

Hardy wrote his first poem `Domicilium' when he was 17.