Great Regulars: I find the poem ["Beyond the Last Lamp"] affecting;

I call it a good poem; but the writing has quite a bit of [Thomas] Hardy's characteristic awkwardness and inelegance. Looking at the poem's second line, I can hardly believe that I want to praise a poem that sees fit to tell us the rain "Descended darkly, drip, drip, drip." And Hardy does not avoid calling the lovers "linked loiterers," or rhyming "absorbed" with "orbed," or referring to nightfall as "the droop of day," or rhyming "rain" with "twain," or referring to the location's "olden look," or ending the poem with a peculiarly subjunctive verb.

from Slate: Awkwardly Charming

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