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Summary ‘The Darkling Thrush’ (Thomas Hardy)
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‘The Darkling Thrush’ (Thomas Hardy)
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1. I leant upon a coppice gate2. When Frost was spectre-grey,
‘The Darkling Thrush’ 3. And Winter's dregs made desolate
4. The weakening eye of day.
5. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
(Thomas Hardy) 6. Like strings of broken lyres,
7. And all mankind that haunted nigh
8. Had sought their household fires.
9. The land's sharp features seemed to be
The title ‘Darkling’ means in darkness, or becoming dark, for 10. The Century's corpse outleant,
11. His crypt the cloudy canopy,
Hardy can still see the landscape, and the sun is ‘weakening’
12. The wind his death-lament.
but not completely set. 13. The ancient pulse of germ and birth
14. Was shrunken hard and dry,
15. And every spirit upon earth
16. Seemed fervourless as I.
17. At once a voice arose among
Symbols 18. The bleak twigs overhead
19. In a full-hearted evensong
20. Of joy illimited;
21. An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
The Land 22. In blast-beruffled plume,
23. Had chosen thus to fling his soul
The desolate land the speaker 24. Upon the growing gloom.
walks through represents the The thrush,
25. So little cause for carolings
past century.
which draws on the motif of the 26. Of such ecstatic sound
27. Was written on terrestrial things
singing bird in Romantic
28. Afar or nigh around,
literature, represents hope. 29. That I could think there trembled through
30. His happy good-night air
31. Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
32. And I was unaware.
, Unexpected Hope
Poetic Form The bird's sense of hope or
Themes perseverance becomes even more
The overall rhythm of ‘The
evident when compared to the
Darkling Thrush’ is regular iambic speaker's hopelessness. The bird's
tetrameter alternating with song reminds audiences that even
when hope for change, the "germ
iambic trimeter (8 syllables in a and birth," feels "shrunken hard and
line, with the second line in dry," nature finds a way to carry on.
each case having just 6
syllables); it’s a ballad stanza
Isolation and Despair
rhythm. This regular rhythm
At the start of the poem the
seems to have a slow, joyless speaker feels sad and alone. It's
effect and makes the pace a holiday, yet everyone he
knows has gone home to their Nature's Resilience
slow. The tight rhyming gives
families and "sought their
Everywhere he looks, the natural world
strength and authority to the household fires." The speaker
appears to be dying. Even the "germ
poem, but the meter is more projects his feelings of isolation
and birth," the hope of new life and
and despair onto the world
relaxed, giving a natural and regeneration, appears "shrunken hard
around him.
and dry." With the emphasis on
free-flowing feeling to the lines.
industrialization, the natural world
appears to be preparing for its
eventual death.
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