Although his first volume of poetry was not published until 1898, Hardy wrote his first poem, "Domicilium" in 1856 at the age of 16, and his last poems in 1927, just months before his death in January, 1928. Thus, Hardy's poetic career spanned more than seven decades, more than twice the length of his career as novelist.

To explore Hardy's poetry in a larger context, consider the following topics:

• Thomas Hardy as a Poet
• Hardy and Romantic Poetry
• Hardy and Victorian Poetry
• Hardy and the Elegiac Tradition
• Hardy and His Poems of 1912-1913
• Hardy and Modern Poetry
• Hardy's Impact on Modern Poetry
• Hardy and the Poets of World War I
• Religious Implications in "Channel Firing"
• Are You Digging?

Below is a list of Hardy's poetic volumes with their dates of publication. The Dynasts, Hardy's three volume "epic-drama" of the Napoleonic wars, is included. Although Hardy admitted that The Dynasts was written "in a form for which there chances to be no brief definition," nearly two-thirds of the work is written in verse.

• Wessex Poems, 1898
• Poems of the Past and Present, 1901
• The Dynasts, Part First, 1904
• The Dynasts, Part Second, 1906
• The Dynasts, Part Third, 1908
• Time's Laughingstocks, 1909
• Satires of Circumstance, 1914
• Moments of Vision, 1917
• Late Lyrics and Earlier, 1922
• Human Shows, 1925
• Winter Words, 1928