The Darkling Thrush Thomas Hardy

The Darkling Thrush: About the poem

Published in December 1900, at the end of the 19th century, ‘The Darkling Thrush’ symbolically mourns the passing of an era. In that respect, it is an elegy a mournful poem that deals with death here, the death of the century. As a matter of  fact, the poem was originally called ‘The Century’s End, 1900’.  But it was also the dawn of the 20th century. Probably giving way to his guarded optimism about what the new age would bring, Hardy renamed the piece to the more cheery title as we know today - The Darkling Thrush.

‘The Darkling Thrush’ is rich in metaphor. ‘Darkling’ means ‘of the darkness’, and conveys an ‘end of days’ metaphor. Here the dusk doesn’t just refer to the dimming of light. On a deeper level, we deal with despair and death of the century. Add the winter landscape to this, and things get more dismal.

Thankfully not all is doom and gloom. There is another focal point to this poem — the Thrush.  A complete antithesis (contrast) to what everything else in the poem represents, the bird speaks of Hope, Joy and Change. This play of light and shade called chiaroscuro effect is treated equally in the poem. All these are lofty concepts that go beyond our five senses. Such poems based on abstract ideas are called abstractions.

Change is never easy. More often than not, we do not have a choice but to accept it.  ‘The Darkling Thrush’ is about one person’s reaction to this change. It is about hope in the face of despair, about endings and cautious beginnings, about courage when all seems lost, depending on the way you look at it.

Form and language of the poem

Hardy does not bring any drama with the structure and wordplay in the poem. He was seeing enough of that in real life. Rather the poet chose to bring symmetry to the poem. He neatly divides the poem in two halves, allocating 2 of the 4 stanzas for his two main subjects — the winter evening, then the thrush. Each stanza is an octet — i.e. it comprises of 8 lines. Hardy even coined his own words — outleant, blast-beruffled, spectre-grey, contributing to the ordered meter/ rhythm of the poem. These words don’t occur anywhere else in the English language and are called nonce words (Have fun coming up with your own).

The Darkling Thrush

Stanza 1

I leant upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-grey,

And Winter’s dregs made desolate

The weakening eye of day.

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky

Like strings of broken lyres,

And all mankind that haunted nigh

Had sought their household fires.

It was evening and I was standing at a gate. Frost was falling and the sun was setting. Branches of bine were seen lifting their hands skyward like the broken strings of a lyre. People who had been roaming in the countryside went home. I was standing alone.

Stanza 2

The land’s sharp features seemed to be

The Century’s corpse outleant,

His crypt the cloudy canopy,

The wind his death-lament.

The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry,

And every spirit upon earth

Seemed fervourless as I.

Looking around, I caught sight of the hills and clouds around me. The hills looked like the fallen dead body of the ending century and the dark clouds appeared like the dome/roof of the tomb. Wind sounded like a burial song. I could imagine the pulse of the seeds buried under the earth.

Stanza 3

At once a voice arose among

The bleak twigs overhead

In a full-hearted evensong

Of joy illimited;

An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,

In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

Upon the growing gloom.

Suddenly, at this gloomy moment, a frail old thrush begins to sing its sweet song. The song of the bird, perched in the twigs, seems infinitely joyful or ecstatic. Hardy is struck that the nearby thrush looks old and frail. Its feathers are ruffled by the strengthening evening wind. Yet it has joy in its heart. The poet imagines that the bird through its song is throwing its soul out to the spreading darkness.

Stanza 4

So little cause for carolings

Of such ecstatic sound

Was written on terrestrial things

Afar or nigh around,

That I could think there trembled through

His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

And I was unaware.

Hardy claims the surrounding dark land provides little reason for this outburst of joyful singing. It reminds him of a carol. The song begins to sweeten his gloomy mood. Hardy suddenly realises the song of the thrush in the falling darkness represents hope. The poet is in a pleasantly sad mood as he leans alone on the gate watching the century fade into darkness. But he clings on to the sad mood. He is addicted to it.

The hopeful song of the bird adds a new mood. Hardy becomes aware for the first time that evening of a new hope of things to come. He realises that there is a reason to hope, without knowing what that reason is. It is clear that the thrush alone senses this hope and expresses it. This is probably nature’s way of reminding him that spring always follows winter. Or it may be a spiritual message from nature. It is certainly uplifting.

The Darkling Thrush

1. Where was the poet standing?

The poet was standing by a coppice gate of some old house in a dark evening.

2. What time of the year is the poem set in?

It is evening of a chilling winter season.

3. What are Winter’s dregs? How?

Winter’s dregs are the fallen snow and heavy fog. Like the leftover – dregs – of a drink, winter’s leftovers are snow and fog.

4. Why do you think that ‘weakening eye of the day’ means the setting sun?

Sun is the eye of the day. Evening is the time when the sun prepares to disappear.

5. What did the poet see scoring the sky?

The poet saw the tangled stems of bine plants trying to reach out to the sky.

6. How does ‘strings of broken lyres’ add to the mood of the poem?

The poem is essentially sad. With the stems of the tangled bine plants swinging in the air, as if they are trying to rise to the sky, the poet compares it with the broken strings of a lyre.

7. What were people doing in the evening? Where have they all gone?

People had been around in the evening but now they have all gone home.

8. What does the poet mean by the land’s sharp features?

The land’s sharp features are hills and mountains.

9. What does the poet compare the hills to? How is this comparison (metaphor) appropriate?

The poet compares the hills to the dead-body of the century covered in a shroud. The comparison is apt because the hills lay covered with snow everywhere and the poem was composed at the end of a century. Besides, resembling a dead-body meant for burial, the landscape lay under a massive layer of clouds that stood like the roof of a tomb and the wind sounded a burial hymn.

10. What does the poet mean by the ‘ancient pulse of germ and birth?’

By ‘the ancient pulse of germ and birth’ the poet could be referring to the seeds that have dried up during the summer and later during autumn. As the seed germinates and gives birth to a new plant, the poet calls it so. Besides, the poet seems to be able to hear the pulse of these seeds that are waiting for the spring season to germinate.

11. And every spirit upon earth seemed fervour-less as I. Explain.

The poet presents an utterly dead earth. He finds no life on or under the earth. The poet finds his own existence, too, lifeless.

12. Where from did the voice come? Whose was the voice?

The voice came from the shaded branches of the tree. It was the evening song of an old thrush.

13. Why does the poet say that the thrush’s song was a full-hearted evensong?

The song of the thrush came all of a sudden from a setting that had seemed to the poet almost dead.

14. How does the poet describe the fragility of the thrush? What is the significance of this description?

The thrush was aged and frail. It was extremely bony, skeleton like. Due to its fragility, its delicate feathers were shaken in the wind. The description is significance because the most beautiful song that the poet heard after a long time in a dead world came from an almost ugly bird.

15. How did the thrush fill the bleak landscape with joy? What was its effect? 

The thrush filled the bleak landscape with joy by singing its sweetest melody. The song was so breath-taking that it lifted gloom from the poet’s heavy mind and the landscape seemed to have become cheerful.

16. What does the poet try to convey through the images of ‘old thrush’ singing above the ‘growing gloom?

Both, old thrush and growing gloom describe the dull side of the Nature. It is to be noticed that the song of the very same old thrush fills the gloomy nature with its song. The poet observes that there is beauty everywhere but we seldom finds it out.

17. Why did the poet consider the thrush-song strange?

The poet considers the thrush-song strange because, in spite of its ordinary song, it was able to ruffle up a certain high amount of hope in the poet.

18. What does the poet mean by terrestrial things?

Terrestrial things refer to all things part of the nature. They include the trees, rivers, sky, clouds, birds, animals, etc.

19. What was not written on terrestrial things far or near?

There was no due response seen or heard from the terrestrial things in the nature. The poet means that the thrush-song could not affect the nature because it was dull as the thrush itself.

20. If not the attractions of the surroundings, what inspired the thrush song?

The thrush sang in a dull setting so it is certain that the thrush was not inspired by the nature. In that case, the reason for the thrush-song was hope. The thrush, in spite of the dullness around, had a hope in its mind.

21. What was the essential difference between an old thrush and the poet?

The thrush and the poet belonged to the same dull nature but the thrush sang out of a hope that the good days were approaching. Although part of the same nature, the poet could not hope for good because he was not able to read what had been written on the ‘terrestrial things.”

22. Give the name of the weekly that first published Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush?

Ans. The Graphic, a weekly newspaper, first published the poem on December 29, 1900,

under the title "By Century's Deathbed”.

23. Identify the season and mood spoken about in The Darkling Thrush?

Ans. When the speaker leaned on a gate before a thicket of small trees, the depressing

winter landscape and the ghostly gray frost made the setting sun seem lonely and

abandoned.

24. What is the theme of The Darkling Thrush?

Ans. Hope amid desolation is the theme of "The Darkling Thrush." The frail old bird is a

harbinger of spring and his song an expression of joy at a new beginning.

25. Make a list of the words that signify the speaker's gloomy mood in "The Darkling

Thrush."

Ans. The words spectre-gray (line 2), Winter's dregs (line 3), desolate (line 3) etc. all signify

the gloomy mood of the poet in The Darkling Thrush.

26. What is the main conflict in the poem 'The darkling thrush'?

Ans. The darkling Thrush portrays the end of 19th century and the poets dilemmas related to it. Begins with oblique atmosphere of Grey winter wear one could hardly see any Ray of hope of forth coming future. He puts forth his dubiousness related to the approaching century The speakers despair echoes Hardy's own world weariness and loss of hope for humanity's future. Isolated from those who have " sought their household fires". Speaker sees death haunted landscape and "growing gloom". Hardy himself Mourned the passing of Agricultural society and social cost to celebrate England's Rapid industrialisation which helped destroy the customs and tradition of rural life. The speakers connection to the past has been severed, and he cannot find meaning in the present and the dawning century, symbolised by the thrush song, offers little in the way of meaning. The bird is " frail, gaunt, and small," and his carolings", though joyfull and " full hearted" , are an evensong and about to end. Any meaning that a new beginning might bring with it is nowhere to be found, landscape and not in the speakers heart.

The poet wondered what could be the cause of Thrush singing amidst the bleakness. He presumes that it might have some happy expectation from the future which he himself is unaware of.