When was the poem, Friends Beyond by Thomas Hardy written?
Friends Beyond and Nature’s Questioning both appeared in Hardy’s first collection “Wessex Poems” published in 1898. The actual date on which he wrote a poem was sometimes added at the end, but not in either of the above poems. Most of his poems (over 900) were written in later life, after his novels, and he was able to recapture in poems, moments of particular passion, romanticism and irony from his younger days. Hardy wished to be remembered foremost as a poet, rather than a controversial novelist of his day.
