Thomas Hardy, a British poet, was born in Dorset, England on June 2, 1840. Despite showing great potential at school, his family lacked the social means to send Hardy on to further his educations. At the age of 16, schooling ended for Hardy and he went to be an apprentice for John Hicks, a local architect. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before he left and moved to London in 1862 where he enrolled as a student at King’s College. Despite winning prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association, Hardy was constantly aware of his social status. He was however, interested in social reform and was introduced to different works by Charles Fourier and Auguste Comte.

In 1867, Hardy left London and returned to his hometown of Dorset where he decided to leave architecture and concentrate on his writing. In 1870, while in Cromwell, Hardy met and fell in love with Emma Gifford, whom he married four years later. In 1910, Hardy was given the distinguished honor of being awarded the Order of Merit. Emma died in 1912 and her death had a profound effect on him. He took trips back to Cornwall to revisit places that reminded him of her. In his “Poems 1912-13,” Hardy reflects on Emma’s death.

In 1914, despite not being over his first wife, he remarried. He married his secretary who also happened to be 39 years younger than him, but was still traumatized by his first wife’s death. He wrote poetry to try and get over his grief and remorse. After Hardy died in 1928, his heart was buried with his first wife, Emma, and his ashes were buried in Poets’ Corner, a section of Westminster Abbey.