English literature Also in 1896 A.E. Housman published at his own expense "A Shropshire Lad". Writers of comic verse included the dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator W.S. Gilbert (1836–1911), who is best known for his fourteen comic operas, produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include "H.M.S. Pinafore", and "The Pirates of Penzance". Novelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) wrote poetry throughout his career, but he did not publish his first collection until 1898, so that he tends to be treated as a 20th-century poet. Now regarded as a major poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins's (1844–1889) "Poems" were
Engaged (play) seen as drawing on "Engaged" are Noël Coward and Joe Orton. By 1877, Gilbert, now forty years old, was established as a dramatist. After his early burlesques of the 1860s he had turned to writing comic opera libretti and non-musical plays, both comic and serious. His musical successes included "Ages Ago" (music by Frederic Clay, 1869) and "Trial by Jury" (music by Arthur Sullivan (1875). His serious and comic non-musical plays included "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1871), "The Wicked World" (1873), "Sweethearts" (1874) and several others that played for well over 100 performances – good runs by the standards of the