Poetical Works of Thomas Hood

by Thomas Hood

To Hope; The Departure of Summer;The Sea of Death; To an Absentee; Lycus the Centaur; The Two Peacocks of Bedfont; Hymn to the Sun; Midnight; To a Sleeping Child; To Fancy; Fair Ines; To a False Friend; Ode - Autumn; Sonnet - Silence; Sonnet; Sonnet - to an Enthusiast; To a Cold Beauty; Sonnet -Death; Serenade; Verses in an Album; The Forsaken; Song; Song; Birthday Verses; I Love Thee; Lines; False Poets and True; and many more ...

437 pages.

Genres: Poetry

615 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1867

About the author

Thomas Hood was an English poet, author and humourist, best known for poems such as The Bridge of Sighs and The Song of the Shirt. Hood wrote regularly for The London Magazine, the Athenaeum, and Punch. He later published a magazine largely consisting of his own works. Hood, never robust, lapsed into invalidism by the age of 41 and died at the age of 45. William Michael Rossetti in 1903 called him "the finest English poet" between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson. Hood was the father of playwright and humorist Tom Hood (1835 – 1874).

Reviews

[Trish]

This is Thomas Hood. Yes, Thomas, not Robin. ;)


I had no idea who he was or that he existed even. Which is especially shameful if one considers that he's been called "the finest English poet between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson"!
Then, when I watched Slow West with Michael Fassbender (*swoons*), I heard him recite a poem in some forest and apart from this reaction

I was also immediately in love with the poem itself despite having heard only 4 lines.

So I googled it (All Hail google!) and found the entire poem including it's title. It was The Haunted House, which is actually a quite LONG poem in 3 parts. Long and wonderful. Rich in detail, painting a vivid picture of the titular haunted house.
This, in turn, made me look for more works from Thomas Hood and I found the collected works - first as a Kindle freebie (I love those) and then also as a gorgeous if also worn-out hardcover edition. I think I'll buy the hardcover too even if it's damaged (after all, it's more than 130 years old - what would I look like at that age?).

Anyway, he was the father of Tom Hood (even I have heard of HIM) and not just a poet, but also a humourist which influenced some of his works. For example, grave robbing and selling corpses were contemporary issues about which he wrote:

Don’t go to weep upon my grave,
And think that there I be.
They haven’t left an atom there
Of my anatomie.

The issue is serious but come on, this is hilarious! xD

But he was political too. His most widely known work during his lifetime was The Song of the Shirt, according to Wikipedia "a verse lament for a London seamstress compelled to sell shirts she had made, the proceeds of which lawfully belonged to her employer, in order to feed her malnourished and ailing child." Apparently, after he had published the poem in 1843, it quickly became a sensation, being turned into a popular song. It even inspired social activists in those days in defence of industrious labouring women who were living in abject poverty.

Part of the poem goes:

With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread--
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the "Song of the Shirt."

"Work! work! work!
While the cock is crowing aloof!
And work—work—work,
Till the stars shine through the roof!
It's Oh! to be a slave
Along with the barbarous Turk,
Where woman has never a soul to save,
If this is Christian work!"

This collection consists of all sorts of works, spanning themes such as the 4 seasons, father-son-relationships, nature (animals), politics / social injustice like the one above, contemporary issues (mostly told in a humorous way like the one about grave robbing) and much more.

I was astonished how wonderfully diverse his works are and even recognized part of his work, namely The Bridge of Sighs. I can't remember how I know that poem but I did recognize part of it. Now I know all of it and even know its author.

I said that The Haunted House that made me look for this author was rich in detail, painting a vivid picture and that is the perfect description for almost all the poems by Thomas Hood. He has a very unique, glorious voice and I'm very glad I found him (who would have thought that a movie about the "Wild West" would lead me to it but that's what Michael Fassbender does to/for me ;p )!

[Holly Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

i guess people had a lot of time in the 1800s— waaayyy more than they needed that’s for sure. some poems were really good, others not so much. just wish the poems styles weren’t so repetitive and the book wasn’t 520 pages lol

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like his writing style and poetic forms, but most of the poems themselves were quite forgettable. Only a few touched me or stood out to me.