“A Broken Appointment” by Thomas Hardy (1901)

A sort of follow-up to “At an Inn” from Hardy’s second collection of poems, Hardy’s speaker in “A Broken Appointment” considers the impact of their lover now failing to show up for an assignation. The poem registers the speaker’s disappointment and their growing certainty that love is a cruel prankster forever denying them its fullest experience.

“Wind and the Window Flower” by Robert Frost (1913)

Frost, the iconic American Modernist, is often compared to Hardy given how they both bridge the two centuries and reflect the movement into Modernism. This poem is Frost’s take on the cruel capriciousness of love. It describes a soft breeze and an indoor flower at a windowsill that is achingly close to but denied that breeze. Frost uses this image to describe the nearness and distance of love, how enticing and teasing love is and how finally unavailable it is. 

Poem 43 (“Remorse”) by Emily Dickinson (1896)

Dickinson, another early Modernist poet often compared to Hardy, offers her take on regret. Remorse, Dickinson decides in keeping with the sentiment of Hardy’s speaker, is “cureless” (Line 9) and living within regret is a “complement to Hell” (Line 12).