WI

Poet
The Darkling Thrush
-Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy. one of the most renowned poets and novelists ln English
Literary history was born 1n 1840, in Dorset, England. Thomas Hardy ls well
known for Ws great novels. Some of them are The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of
the D'urberotlles, Farfrom the Madding Crowd and Jude the obscure. Tess of the
D 'urberoUles and Jude the Obscure are considered as literary classics today.
Hardy stopped writing novels ln 1899 and concentrated on the writing of verse.
Hardy's first collection of poems was called The Wessex Poem. Hardy died in
1928 and bis ashes were deposited 1n the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.
His heart, having been removed before cremation, was interred In the graveyard
at Stinsford Church where his parents, grandparents, and his first wtfe were
burled.
Poem
Thomas Hardy usually writes in strict formal patterns and the Judicious
choice of expressions and repetitive patterns give one a sense of solidity of form .
The main themes of his poems are usually disappoinb:ncnt and suffertngs, love,
nature, fate, and war.
Hardy's poems With disappointment and sufferings are •Neutral Tones· and
·r Looked into My Glass •. Hardy's war themed poem, •orummer Hodge" shows
people having little control over their fate . Fate Is a theme which is most obvious
1n •The Convergence of the Twatn•. In the nature-themed poem ·The Darkllng
Thrush", the poet recalls the end of an old generation and the beginning of a new
one. The poem is a reflection about his feelings for future and his attitude to
nature
Substance
'The Darkling Thrush' was written to usher In the New Year and the new
century. It Is about the lack of hope and the doomed state of the world where
everything Is sombre, dark and gray. Hardy is an evolutionary mellorlst, which
means that he believes that the world will move forward and progress through
science and its humane qualities. Though he is optimistic about the final
moment he appears to be pessimistic about the immediate present. This he
illustrates by havtng the bird demonstrate hope, which is not justified by its
surroundings.
Thomas Hardy wrote 'The Darkllng Thrush' to express his feelings about the
world when I t wa~ about to enter the twenty.first century. As the title suggests,
the poem is about a bird, a bedraggled thrush that Is slngtng a song on a gloomy
evening of the last day of the year. The theme of the poem Is 'Hope.' Hope holds
an influence with great intensity and strength.
 The poet portrays the dissolute and grey landscape of winter dusk, leaning
on a coppice gate and watching the spectre-grey frost covering the leafless trees
of December. The spectacle he was watching was desolate and lonely. He was
sad because he felt that the New Year would bring nothing to be happy about.
The sudden song of the thrush made him feel hopeful because he felt that the
bird knows that the New Year would bring about something Joyous which the
poet himself ts unaware of. The idea of religious faith ts conveyed through the
thrush's 'carolling', reminiscent of Christmas carols and the 'Blessed Hope'-
hope being one of the three great Christian virtues I.e., faith, hope, and charity
(love).
The poem ends on an ambiguous note. One wonders if the speaker ls
inspired by the 'Blessed Hope' of the thrush·s song, or does he continue to lack
optimism towards the future? He is 'unaware' of the thrush's reasons for being
cheerful, but he seems to believe that such a cause for hope exists somewhere,
and he simply hasn·t discovered (or rediscovered) it yet.
Critical Analysis
The theme of loneliness and Isolation abounds In the poem. The poet"s
choice of words creates an atmosphere of separation from the rest of the world:
desolate, weakening. haunted and dregs. However, gradually there comes a
change seeing the thrush and its ability to find and create beauty in a joyless
landscape allows the narrator to embrace the hope he can find in his own heart.
In the first stanza, we are introduced to the narrator in the fust person 'I'
leaning against the wooden gate surrounded by bushes and trees on a wintery
and isolated evening. This pose is tradiUonally a thinking pose and the poet
conveys his thoughts and feelings of being stressed by the imagery 'frost',
'spectre', ·gr ey', 'dregs', 'desolate', 'weaken1ng· and 'broken·. This imagery
suggests death, ghostly and cold . The broken lyres ts a classic Image of
disharmony and perhaps points to the lack of Joy in the poet"s vision of life.
In the second stanza, the distinct land depicts the end of the century as the
grey clouds and wind enclose the last of the century like a coffin to a corpse. Life
ts shrunken hard and dry and every other being on earth appears as hopeless
and numb.
The alliteration in this stanza intensifies the atmosphere of gloom and
death. Everything is seen in terms of death, 'sharp features· (of a dead body),
'century's corpse', ·crypt', 'death-lament", 'shrunken hard and dry', ·fervourless·.
It seems that 1t ls not Just the death of the old century that Hardy Is describing,
but the death of the pulse of life.
In the third stanza, the song of the thrush is seen as fatuous optimism in
the poem. Hardy chooses an old frail thin scruffy looking thrush, not the
ntghttngaJe of Miltonic and Romantic tradition. The thrush represents the
optimism and hope for the future but it is equally ironic since it ls an aged
thrush that is weak and frail.
In the final stanza, it ls suggested that the idea of rellgious faith Is conveyed
through the thrush's 'carolling', reminiscent of Christmas carols and the:
 'Blessed Hope'- hope being one of the three great Christian virtues i.e. faith,
hope, and chartty (love).
The title- 'The Darkling Thrush', is a contradiction because it seems as lf
the th.rush would be a hopeless and gloomy one because of the word 'darkling'
but 1n reality, it is the speaker who 1s the hopeless and gloomy one, while the
th.rush ts cheerful and hopeful.
Word-Meanings
darkling - 1n the dark or darkness: coppice - a thicket of small group of trees,
regularly trimmed to obtain firewood: •pectre-gray - frost made the l.andscape
as gray as a ghost: dregs - residue or remains of something; desolate -
unhappiness or lonel1ness/d.1smal/mise.rable: eye of day - sun: outlcant - lean
out; stretched out: crypt - tomb; lament - cry: pulse - life force; germ - state
from which things can grow; fervourleH - lack of zeal or passionate feeling; full.
hearted - overjoyed; frail - fragile: gaunt - extremely thin and bony; blast•
berruffled - points to the thrush's wtngs blown by the wind; plume - feathers:
caroling- singing of songs; estatic - happy: afar or nigh - far or near.
Compound Questions and Answers
Q, 1. (a) From the poem, 'The Darkling Thrush' describe what elements
of nature has the poet emphasised upon?
Ans. Hardy finds various aspects of nature, which clash at times. Natu.re
can be depressing like hell as seen in his "The Convergence of the Twain," and at
the same time it can be beautlful like "BlJ'ds at Winter Nightfall." One amazing
fact of the elements of natu.re 1n his poems ls that Hardy not only uses it as
ornamentation but also as a purpose to anticipate serious topics like life itself.
Hardy's poem, "The Darkling Thrush" reflects on the poet's inqulJ'y about the
mearung of life 1n nature. The puzzle to understand the meaning of nature to
man is left for the reader to ponder upon. The speaker of the poem sees nature
as alive as a source of inspl.ration and Influence.
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray
Though the speaker is leaning up againSt a gate leading to a big patch of
brush and brambles but the focus Is on the cold and d.reary winter day. As the
speaker ponders that "Frost" is "spectre-gray", he is actually trying to highlight
or beautify the frost, to enhance the element of nature in this very poem
"Spectre" ts also an extravagant term for "ghost" used during the 19th century.
The term of nature winter ts an allegory for death which is presented with
both the purposes - natural element and the theme of despair in the poem too.
So. it can be summed up that this poem "The Darkling Thrush" ts full of
natural elements which are treated in Hardy's own style to maintain the grim
theme of the poem too.
(b) What is the significance of the time when this poem was published?
Ans. The poem "The Darkling Thrush" was written with a precise
prominence on time and change. If we ponder upon the time when "The
 Darkling Thrush" was written then it was the last day of the nineteenth century,
again a time which has a great importance as it's a link between the forthcoming
time and the past. The poem itself deals with a subject about the evolution from
one century to another 1n terms of time and change.
Cr1Ucs have applauded Hardy for writing a poem at a crucial moment of
time, as seen in this poem, which ts written at the tum of the century or the
millennium. "The DarkHng Thrush", written at the very end of the nineteenth
century, has a compact view of the past and vtsion for the forthcoming 1n precise
and metaphorical stanzas. The ambience ts made from the very first stanza as Is
seen that the poem begins on a cold winter's day: "When Frost was spectre-gray
and Winter's dregs made desolate". To make the weather more potent, Hardy has
personified the season and frost and has also given it humanlike qualities. It is
after knowing this fact the reader can comprehend the reason for the word
"Darkling" in the title of this poem. Hardy seems to be converted from a lively
man in the former century to that of a pessim1st in the succeeding one. The
main importance of time in this poem begins from when it was written, as this
poem was written exactly at the end of the 19th century.
(c) Does the depressed narrator in the poem find hope due to the
thrush?
Ana. The bP.glnnlng of the poem as starts on a winter day, which reflects 1n
Itself the notion of depression and death. This is the environment, which the
depressed narrator Is trying to express to his readers. It demonstrates the
attitude of the depressed narrator as he Is not looking forward to a bright future
rather the only thing he knows will happen for sure Is death.
"The tangled bine-stems scored the sky I like strings of broken lyres".
This stanza portrays the sole impression of death, no vigour. and nothing to
look forward to. Within all these depressed surroundings Hardy, the depressed
narrator, is astonished to hear "a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead" in
the third stanza. It was a bird singing "a full-hearted evensong ofjoy limited;" all
this collectively presents a wonderful contrast on one hand, a bird is singing a
Joyful song full of zest whereas on the other hand the narrator "seemed
Jeruourless 1' . The appearance of the singing bird brought a hope: "An aged
thrush.frail, gaunt and small, in blast-ben.!(fled plume". The thrush can be taken
as a mirror image of Hardy, the narrator himself, gloomy dull, tired and
hopeless. It's here, that the narrator finds hope because he thinks that though
being, old and feeble, the thrush can sing in such a Jolly tone, then why cannot
he have happiness in life.
Hardy was strikingly depressed throughout the poem and confused too as to
why the tlirush was singing so zestfully, as he cannot find any reason for the
thrush to sing so Joyously. As soon as the song begins, the surrounding begins
to shed off all Its gloom scattered around-the ghostly and gray frost started
getting lighter, the depressing winter landscape, which made the sun set lonely
and abandoned, faded, the speaker leaned on a gate before a thicket of small
trees, twining plants rising high. were silhouetted against the sky Hice the strings
of broken lyres, all these were trying to lighten their gloomy moods. Hardy
 assumes the song "Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew". Hardy thus tells the
readers that earlier he believed that there was no hope in the future for hJm to
adjust.
It is dusk on the last day of the nineteenth century and the atmosphere is
dead and motionless.
But as soon as he suddenly heard the bubbly, Jolly song of the thrush, he
started wondering if the bird i.e., the thrush was a herald of some hope of which
be was both hopeless and unconscious.
Q. 2. (a) Ill the poem 'The Darkling Thrush,• do the "broken ■tringa"
refer to Hardy'• poHibly broken spirit after hf• career took a downslide?
How doe1 the poem relate to his life?
An■, Thomas Hardy has expressed gloomy and fatalistic views of various
events in most of his writings and so 1t ts not surprising that he uses a bleak
winter landscape to symbolize the passing of the nineteenth century, which the
poem calls a ·corpse' in a 'crypt'. On a closer analysis, the poem seems to be a
reflection of the poet's llfe. The usage of the words 'broken strings' may be an
indication of the time when his writing career was weakening. When Hardy
wrote 'The Darkllng Thrush' on the threshold of the twentieth century, he
himself was making a transition-from writing novels to writing poetry
exclusively. The motivation for the change was the negative publlc reception of
two of his novels, 'Tess of the d 'Urbervtlles· and 'Jude the Obscure'. Their frank
depictions of morally taboo subjects outraged readers. The novelist George
Gtssing, who was a friend of Hardy, had called the novel as 'Jude the Obscene'.
So, Hardy had a reason to be gloomy and was full of doubts whether the publlc
will accept his poetry and would the new century improve on the old. It ls
important to notice that ln this poem Hardy offers a little bit of hope, expressed
in the Joyous song of the bird. The hope that Hardy had felt in the song of the
thrush came fruitful With 'Tess' and 'Jude the Obscure' now being widely read
and admired by all lovers of literature. His poetry too is generally received With
high praise and adm1ratlon.
(b) Do you think there fa a relation between the time the poem wa■
written and the tired and desolate state of the thrush?
An■ , 'The Darkllng Thrush' was published by the end of the nineteenth
century and time has a great significance with regards to the background of the
poem. Hardy's thrush belongs to the Romantic tradition, in which birds seem to
express emotion in 'songs· that have human significance. Hardy wrote this poem
ln the last days of December and It is a sad narration of the dying century. The
end of one century certatnly means the start of a brand-new century, but the
narrator in the poem finds it difficult to maintain any hope. The narrator
describes the thrush as a tired and desolate bird that seems to be tired of all the
trials and negativities of the day. The poet strikes a similitude between the tired
bird and the passing century. The way a year or century ends laden With the
happenings during lts tenure, it becomes like a consumed bird returning after a
day full of flytng, struggling, efforts and disappointments. The Keatsian word
'darkllng' simply means 'In the dark', but it has the sound of a prelude to a
 birdsong . To paint the passing of the year, the poet uses the ima ge of the 'aged
thrush, frail, gaunt and small, in blast-ber uffled plu me.'
(c) What •ituatio n in the poem makes the reader feel aad? What la it
that the 1mall bird could sec but the narrator c ouldn't ?
Ana. In the poem, the poet ls sad and dreary and the world seems to him
full of gloom and mlsery. Th e narrator in the poem only sees the negativit y
around him and fails to see the hope that ls abundan tly spread around. It Is the
end of the century and the visual around seems as if it the end of the world. A
tiny frail bird w hich scclllS to be beaten by the weather and time, looking old
and desolate llke the year and the century passing by, Is heard by the narrator.
The poor blrd has nothing to look forward to and yet lt was s in ging a song of Joy
and hope. The narrator ls moved by th e bird's song and wonders why would
anyone sing a song and waste their breath when there was no one to hear the
song ln that dreary hopeless atmosph ere. The notes of the thrush contribu te a
llttle hope to th e coming tlmes. The narrator Is wonderi ng why the bird was
doing this when the world already s eems to have fallen but he cannot, of course,
talk to a blrd, so h e let goes the enqutry. But in h1s heart, he Is contente d that at
least som eone has found hope in these cold sad times. So, what If It ls a bird
that has made the discovery , which the narrator falls to see even though he is a
human being. The small bird could see a s mall quantum of hope, which the poet
is unable to see.
Long Questi ons and Answe rs
Q . 1. I•olatio n and loncline H a.re central causes of dcpreHi on and
dc•pair, which abound in the poem- The Darklfn g Thrush. How fa hope
ushered l.n by the end of the poem? Diacua• the two themes.
Ana. "The Darkllng Thr ush• is a nature poem and its subject Is the titular
bird . Har dy wrote about this poem to usher in the New Year and the n ew
century. The narra tor speaks of a frost-bit ten landscap e, gray and lifeless, and
bow It makes him feel mlserabl e and d epressed . It Is about the lack of hope and
the doomed state of the world where everythi ng is sombre, dark and gray.
The themes of loneline ss and Isolation abound ln the poem- The Darkllng
Thr ush. The poem is abou t a b ird (thrush) tha t Is singing a song on a gloomy
evening of the last day of the year. The spectacle that the poet was watching was
desolate and lonely.
Covering the leafless trees of Decemb er, when the frost was ghostly gray
and the depressi ng winter landscape made the setting sun s eem lonely and
abandon ed. The poet was sad because he felt that the New Year would bring ln
n othing to be happy about. The poet looks ou t a t the wintry landscap e, which
a p pears to him to be the corpse of the p revious century with Its land barren and
shrunke n. Just like the speaker 's feellngs, everythl ng on earth appears to b e
without energy or p assion. All the people who lived n earby were lnside their
h omes , gathered around their househ old fires. The cloudy sky is like the crypt
for the corpse and the sound of the winter wind, a lament for the dead person
that Is the century. The narrator finds a place with no connecti on to anyone.
Every living creature seems devoid of passion.
 ,u: v t'111! . 1 111! uMJLJ1ng 1 nrusn • 195
The poet 's word choi ce crea tes an atm osph ere
of sepa ratio n from the rest of
the worl d ,l.e., deso late, wea keni ng. haun ted,
dreg s, brok en sugg est deat h, cold
and ghos tly, The brok en lyre s ls a clas sic
Imag e of dish arm on y and perh aps
poin ts to a lack of joy ln the poet 's visio n of
life.
Righ t from the very onse t of the poem, the
ines capa ble feeli ng is one of
depr essi on and lone line ss. How ever , grad
uall y ther e com es a chan ge from
acce ptance of the hard er aspe cts and time s
ln life to emb race of wh at joys exis t:
the narr ator does not s ee the reas on for
that joy but ls Insp ired to cont inue
s earc bJng for lt. The them e of hop e ls intro
duce d with the appe aran ce of a
song bird . A full- thro ated song, sun g by
an old thru sh was hear d and the
mou rnfu l moo d of the poet star ted chan ging
. Seei ng the thru sh and Its abili ty to
find and crea te beau ty in a joyle ss land scap
e allow s the narr ator to emb race the
hope he can flnd ln his own hear t. The
thru sh's song brea ks the moo d of
unh appi ness . Des pite the narr ator 's pess imis
tic attit ude, he ls appr ecia tive to
know that som ethin g ln the natu ral world can
still find joy in life. The cage d bird
has chos en to strik e a note of new hope . The
grow tng gloo m ls chec ked by that
splr lted song. Hop eful thou ghts and chee r
filled the atm osph ere. The poet was
unab le to unde rsta nd the ecst asy of the bird
, how ever , the bird was succ es sful
ln llftin g the poet 's moo d from a mel anch olic
stat e to a joyf ul state . Thu s, the
poem , whic h bega n sorro wful ly, ende d on a
note of hope. So also the moo d of the
poet chan ged from gloo m to hope .
Thus, we can see that hope hold s an influ ence
with such great lnte nslty and
stren gth that It can conq uer the wors t of mise
ries and sorr ows.
Q. 2 . What are the met aph on uaed by the
poe t in The Dar klin g thru sh
to con vey hia deso latio n?
Ana . Hard y writ es in a vari ety of tigh tly stru
ctur ed form s with a well -def ined
poet ic patt ern. Ther e ls a lot of vari ety to Hard
y's use of lang uage . Freq uent ly,
Hard y u ses arch aic or rust le dicti on and synt
ax. Som etim es he capi talis es wor ds
mld -llne to emp hasi ze a mor al poin t or
an iron y. Man y of his p oem s are
arra nged in regu lar ~tao ras, With a set llne
leng th. Hard y's tone rang es from awe
to desp air. Ima ges of natu re are freq uent
ly a ccom pan ied by a tone of
ama zem ent.
Hard y ls som etim es the auto biog raph ical spea
ker, thou gh he also uses an
abst ract obse rver as the spea ker. Hard y uses
meta phor ical lang uage frequ ently.
A met apho r com pare s two thin gs with out u
s ing the wor ds ·Uke · or "as: It gives
the qual ities of one thin g to som ethi ng that
Is quit e diffe rent.
'The Dark llng Thru sh' depi cts the blea knes s
and cold ness in this poem: tt ts
the end of the cent ury, and of the year
. The shar p outl ines of the wtn ter
land scap e seem to him like the shar p feat
ures of a corpse, spec lflca lly. the
corp se of the dytn g ntne teen th cent ury.
In the first stan za, met apho r Is used to depi
ct the end of the year . Here the
sunset sym boliz es the end of the year . The
meta pho r tells the read er that the
day ls com ing to an end so the sun Is setti ng.
In the seco nd stan za, the hars h barr en land
scap e is a sym bol of the deat h
of the 19th cent ury and loss of the nine teen
th cent ury valu es ln mod em Ufe.
.l."11 • l..,UlllJlleL t1 LUUJ::,e 111 ..LJl.., c:J JJ,U::,J J-LI.., A..l Ol A.I...L

Metaphor represents the end of spring. He sees no hope for rebuilding or

renewal in the coming century.
In the third stanza, despite the ·growing gloom· of the end of the 19th
century, the song of the thrush is a symbol of hope for new meaning in the new
century, which emphasizes Hardy's search for meaning.
Century's corpse shows the comparison of the death of the previous
century.
•His crypt the cloudy canopy- brings out the comparison of the cloud cover
to a crypt.
Finally, ·ttad chosen thus to rung his soul· brings the comparison of the
bird's song to a soul.

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