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THE DARKLING THRUSH Introduction Thomas Hardy is reputed to have written The Darkling Thrush on New Year s Eve, 1900, at the dawn of a new century. The speaker stands alone in the wintry evening, contemplating on the desolate landscape of the century that was. It is the end of the day, the end of the year and the end of the century. The Darkling Thrush is a significant poem which doesn t merely project the perception and feelings of one person but is representative of the mood of an age. Hardy like the people of his age witnessed the intense and rapid change in the society and political beliefs due to the developments in science and technology. The rapid industrialization of England led to the slow decline of his beloved countryside, loss of rural customs and traditions and a steep increase in urbanization with degrading living conditions for the working class. These changes created a feeling of hopelessness and bleak future in the poet s mind which is reflected in the poem. The despair of the poet with regards to the end of the 19th century and the doubts that he has regarding the future of humanity with the onset of a new century is highlighted in The Darkling Thrush . The evening son of the Thrush does give him hope of a better tomorrow, but the hope is bleak. Summary The poet persona finds himself leaning against a wooden gate in a sombre mood, perfectly complemented by the harsh wintry weather. The landscape, the bare trees, the cold wind and everything around him seem to have come under the spell of a dreary desolate winter. Piercing through this lifeless state comes a voice from the bleak twigs overhead : An aged thrush, no better off than his surroundings frail, gaunt and small sings a joyful song under such a gloomy condition. The poet sees no immediate cause that could trigger such fervour in the bird. He can t help but think there might be some great mysterious hope of which the little bird understands and he doesn t. Paraphrase and Analysis Stanza 1: Line 1 to 4 In the first stanza, we are introduced to the poet, in the first person, I . The speaker or the poet is watching as a silent bystander leaning upon the coppice gate a gate that opens onto the woods. The posture suggests the poet is tired and exhausted. He is watching a barren landscape on a wintry, frosty evening. The frost has been personified. It appears as if the frost has made the landscape in front of the poet as grey as a ghost. The Winter s left overs, snow and fog, weakens the eye of the day (Sun). The weakening eye of day indicates that the poet is watching the sunset. The use of the word weakening suggests that the sun is fading and dying and in the twilight and the Frost and Winter make the landscape look desolate and haunted. Line 5 to 6 Dead and tangled stems of the climbing plants, embossed against the sky brings to the mind of the poet the grimy image of broken strings of lyre. The musical instrument with broken strings has no music or sound, similarly all around the poet there is a picture of utter silence. There is no happiness, harmony or music in Nature. Line 7 to 8 While the speaker is outside contemplating a bleak landscape , no human being is in sight as people are warming themselves in their respective homes. The use of all mankind suggests a universal refusal to engage with the wintry haunted surroundings. (The poem begins in a lonely and meditative mood. The landscape looks bleak, colourless and lifeless. The use of personification for Frost and Winter; brilliant metaphor of the feeble sun ( weakening eye of day) and a simile of the leafless trees bring out the death like feature of the land.) Stanza 2: Line 9 to 12 The speaker brings the reader s attention to the sharp outlines of the winter landscape and collates it as the sharp features of the corpse of the nineteenth century. The cloudy sky seems to be like the century s tomb and the whistling wind of the cold winter its death song. Line 13 to 14 The seed, which has been representative of life since time immemorial has shrivelled up and has become hard and dry , symbolizing not only the death of life, but death of hope with no chance of recovery or revival. Line 15 to 16 This line means that every spirit on the planet seems as fervourless , that is, as discouraged and passive as the poet himself. (The imagery of desolation and despair is extended further into the second stanza. The speaker has personified Century and has used a series of metaphor to describe the barren landscape as the corpse of the nineteenth century. The dormant environment feeds the poet s brooding frame of mind. The scale of his pessimism increases. Dull observations escalate to a despairing mindset and the poet only sees a world without promise or future.) Stanza 3: Line 17 to 20 Suddenly, a joyful song of thrush from among the scrawny twigs overheas breaks into the poet s despairing outlook. The poet calls the thrush s melody a fullhearted evensong prayers sung at the end of the day, in the evening. The song was coming out of boundless joy. Line 21 to 24 The speaker then solicits the reader s attention to the singer. It was an old bird feeble, lean and small, with its feathers disarranged by the wind (blastberuffled). The little bird is in no better shape than his surroundings but it had at once decided to through caution to the wind and had thus chosen to burst into a soulful cry in a desperate and obvious attempt to ward off the encroaching darkness. Its act is of complete defiance of its surroundings. (The image of the bird choosing to sing his optimistic song despite the adverse situation is what makes his birdsong all the more impactful. When all hope seems lost, and when death immobilizes all, it is the tiny, imperfect little bird which sings a song of hope which becomes a testament of life .It is an indirect reference to Christ s sufferings and death on the cross. ) Stanza 4: Line 25 to 28 The poet remarks that even though there is so little cause to celebrate in such dreary circumstances, the bird makes its ecstatic sound regardless of its dull surroundings. The poet is unable to comprehend what was visible on the surface of the earth ( written on terrestrial things ) far or near the bird (afar or nigh around) that could gave him the reason for such a joyous song (carolings of such ecstatic sound) Line 29 to 32 The same night air which made the poet lose all hopes, is making the bird happy and the poet may be a little comforted by the its song. He conjectures that there must be some mysterious cause for this uncorrupted sense of faith and hope in the bird. The thrush s song is an enigma, and the poet marvels at the blessed Hope or knowledge the bird has that the poet himself and all of mankind is oblivious to. Like the poet, we can only wonder, keep our hearts open and just be glad that there is a reason to be happy at all. (The use of the word evensong (evening prayer song) and carolings (reminiscent of Christmas carols) and the blessed Hope - hope being one of the three great Christian virtues other than faith and charity bear a religious connotation in this poem which was written in an age where religion was haunted by the spectre of coldly- calculating rational thought overtaking its established authority. The probable existence of a Blessed Hope and the human inability to comprehend it lends this poem a quasi-religious dimension and the poem ends on a note of ambiguity.) Theme: Primary theme- Despair of the Modern Temperament. In the first half of the poem, the speaker treats the bleak landscape as an extended metaphor for the cultural decline of Western civilization a decline so severe that the speaker sees no possibility that it might be renewed or reborn. Nature, in Hardy s poem is far from loving, soothing or anything beautiful, but is rather cold with frost, haunted landscape, desolate and hard and dry. Hope and Desolation- The thrush s appearance in the second half of the poem suggests a solution to the cultural decay. The hope the thrush embodies does offer the possibility of renewal and resurrection, specifically through religious faith. Life maybe threatened, its physical existence at risk, but its spirit is indomitable and cannot be crushed.
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