For AS Level, we had to study Thomas Hardy's poetry in a lot of depth, and I must admit, though we found the poet himself interesting, the poetry lacked something. I found quite a few of them very pessimistic. Most of them full of doubt, cynicism. They got even worse after 1912, when his wife, Emma died. I mean it's understandable to be pretty distraught when suffering a loss like that, but he wrote so many poems depicting his own guilt (they weren't speaking much to each other, and he didn't believe she was that ill), which, to some extent is quite sweet, but to some, it seems a little over the top, and very depressing.
I will say something for Hardy, he did write a terrific love poem not long after meeting Emma called 'When I Set Out For Lyonnesse' which is a lovely, happy, and optimistic, magical poem.