Analyse of “the Darkling Thrush”

Analyse of The Darkling Thrush Thomas Hardy presents a cornerstone of hope in his poem The Darkling Thrush. In the poem winter season has brought ab erupt death and despair. A tired old man leans over a skirmish gate in a neutralize area, to see the tones of the past and diminutive hope for the future. Hardy commits imagery to evoke ideas and images in the readers mind. The lands sharp features awaited to me. The vitamin Cs corpse outleant, His crypt the dim canopy, The scent its death-lament. In describing the landscape he refers to the landscape as an intimate object as if it were human.He compares the landscape to a dead body pose altogether around him and the clouds be attack the coffins top, and the wind his death lament. The man also describes the landscape to pee as much life and nip as he does. Hardy choose his words carefully workout damaging words such as gray, desolate, broken and haunted. This negatively leads us to believe that this is how Harper feel ings are alone and frightened out in the cold. While still using a negative tone Harper tries to turn the poem to a about positive tone. He continues to use diction such as frail, aged, otiose and small but adds in wording like full-hearted and joy illimited.The change of wording suggests a shift in the tone of the poem. A vociferationbird has entered, spreading warmth and hope into the earlier desolate and dead landscape. The theme of hope is introduced with the style of a painsbird in stanza three. The bird is meant to resemble hope and that things are not quite over yet even though it may seem so. In the winter months death is brought forth yet in the glide slope of spring restores that life once again. The poem suggests that if one doesnt order into the negative a positive can and may come forth whether one is aware of this or not.In the poems last stanza the man reveals his thoughts as if his thoughts as if he has see a glimpse of hope as the life songbird colours the ai r with its song. 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 virtually smiling Hope, whereof he k juvenile, And I was unaware. The stanza suggests that there may be hope after all. Is it the spring coming once more(prenominal)? Or is it just the ghost messing with him? Hardys poem as well as its overall theme is a reflection of the clock time period he lived in.The poem takes localize on New Years Eve, the last day of the 19th century. The queen is barely breathing her last few breaths and the puritanical Era is coming to an end. Waiting just around the corner is a new era, a new king, and a new Period completely different from the Victorian Era. The theme of hope is presented in a fashion that even though something may seem dark and shadowy that one needs to have a little faith in such matters. Things in the world and life are going to be unclear because nothing is ever sure. Hardy wants readers to have doctrine in the world and the transformation of the times. Stanzas . The gate which the vocalizer is leaning on represent the threshold of the new century. The spectral quality of frost suggests the ageing and the apparitional quality of the landscape. The scene has the mere trace of life, in which natural and human presences are ghostly. The figure of the weakening eye symbolizes the destination of the day along with the ending of the century. The tangled bine-stems represent a harp which all the strings have been broken emphasizing the winters dregs. The stanza ends with the speakers awareness that he is alone, the slew who usually occupy the land have returned to their home. . This stanza also marks the end of a century. The landscapes features become like an immense body layed out. The low sentence shows the speakers mind enclosing the huge space of land and sky into the frightening display of the Centurys corpse i n its coffin. The sky is the lid. The second sentence emphasizes that the ending of the century is not just closing to the speaker, but an end which seems to separate it from any relation to the future. Every spirit of vegetal and human life is under the pall of this death. 3.The darkling thrush, in all its homeliness and diminutiveness, is the corporeal voice of the real world. The birds song is spontaneous and unpremeditated. It flings its soul into the gloom in contrary of the speakers previous flinging of his spiritless soul upon the landscape. The birds joyful act appears to the speaker as a choice, and not for mere survival in the growing gloom, but for the enthusiastic and full-hearted participation. 4. The speaker has not been convinced or transported out of the growing gloom, but his response to the birds song is to think.Although the blessed Hope is a knowledge only the bird has and of which the speaker is yet unaware, the speaker accepts the birds song as a sign that ther e is hope for the future. Analysis of The Darkling Thrush, by Thomas Hardy As the title has already mentioned, this assignment pull up stakes be an analysis on a poem by Thomas Hardy. The poem is called The Darkling Thrush, also known by another title, By the Centurys deathbed. My analysis depart include elements such as the poems setting, structure, imagery, diction, poetry scheme and theme. I lead go into one element at the time, and them give examples from one stanza only in that element.I will not come back to the same elements in the other stanzas, even though they are there. Therefore, this will not be a complete analysis of every element in apiece of the stanzas. Id rather prefer to give a thorough description of what the different elements are and then give a few examples of each of them. In then end I will evidence to come up with a conclusion. The poem takes place on New Years Eve, the last day of the 19th century. Its also the end of the Victorian Age. Winter is bri nging death and desolation with it. A tired old man leans over a coppice gate in a desolate area, seeing ghosts of the past and little hope in the future.This poem has 4 stanzas, each with 8 lines. This is what we call an octave. The lines changes between having 4 and 3 stressed syllables in them, which is called tetrameter (4) and trimeter (3). Since the lines also follow a form of having one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable etc, we also call it iambic. As an example I use the poems 1st stanza. Line number 1, 3, 5 and 7 each have 4 stressed syllables, therefore called iambic tetrameter ( / / / / ). Line number 2, 4, 6, and 8 each have 3 stressed syllables, therefore called iambic trimeter ( / / / )The tangled bine-stems scored the sky5 And all mankind that haunted nigh7 Had sought their household fires. 8 Through the use of incarnation, symbols, metaphors, beginning rhyme (this last element may also refer to the poems structure) and a selected sort of w ords, he produces images in the readers mind, when all he really does is just speak from his internal state of mind, as modernists are soon to do. To show the use of imagery in this poem, Ive taken its 2nd stanza as an example. Here he uses personification on the landscape, thereby referring to an inanimate object as if it were human.He compares the landscape to a dead body lying all around him, and the clouds becoming the coffins top, and the wind his death lament. The poet also makes use of alliteration in this poem. An example from this stanza is corpse, crypt, cloudy, canopy etc, where you easily notice the same sounds repeated several times. This has mostly a ornamental effect, but it also makes you focus on these words, thereby telling parts of the poems nature and temperament. The lands sharp features seemed to be1 The Centurys corpse outleant, 2 The ancient pulse of germ and birth5The choice of words in this poem has been carefully selected, leaving little to coincidence. If you look carefully, you notice him using lots of negatively loaded words such as grey, desolate, broken, haunted etc. He himself is all alone out in the cold with all his negatively loaded words. But this changes further on in the poem. In stanza number 3 you will notice a change in the poets use of diction. In stead of keeping mainly to negatively loaded words, he suddenly makes use of positively loaded words too. Words like frail, aged, gaunt and small still remains, but you also get words like evensong, full-hearted and joy illimited.This change in diction shows the reader that something new has occurred in the poem. A song-bird has entered, spreading warmth and hope into an earlier desolate and dead landscape. Another thing to bear in mind (in a more of a oecumenical matter concerning his poems) as you read Hardys poems, is that he chooses to avoid following a jewelled line. He doesnt care for opus just pretty poetry. He breaks with conventions concerning the normal use of language. An aged thrush frail, gaunt and small5 Had chosen thus to fling his soul7 As you read it through, you easily find its rhyme scheme to be regular.There is only one irregularity in it, and this always means that its put there on purpose, and that it has a picky meaning. He operates with end-rhyme, but both in masculine and feminine endings. The major theme is introduced in the poems 3rd stanza, in the appearance of a song-bird. It is probably divinatory to resemble hope, and that things are not quite over yet although it may seem so. Like winter always brings death along with it, the coming of autumn restores some of it to life once more. Although things may look pretty negative right now, dont give in to it, life will return sometime, even though you are not aware of it yourself.This theme can be seen as a kind of reflection on the time Thomas Hardy lived. It was the end of an era, and end of a Period and almost the end of a Queen. And when a new Period is called for, i ts often a reaction to the old one. Now was the time for a reaction. Things looked dark and not so promising. People didnt know what hope there lay in the future, but as this poem says, there may be hope coming although you dont know of its coming. In the poems last stanza, the man revealing his thoughts to us sees a glimpse of hope, as the song-bird colours the air with its singing. There may be hope after all.Is it the spring coming once more? Or are his Demi-Gods just playing with him? So little cause for carolings 1 Was written on terrestial things3 That I could think there trembled through5 Some blessed Hope whereof he knew7 If youve followed me through these 5 pages, you will probably not only feel that your understanding of the poem is enhanced, but also your understanding of poems in general. Ive tried to guide you through some of the main elements of poetry, giving a brief explanation as to what they are and how to find them. Because Ive chosen to spend so much time on this , I didnt use them all in each and every stanza.But now that you have it in front of you, why not try to look for signs of the different elements in the other stanzas? If I were to give my own opinion of this poem, then I think I like the other title of the poem better. It is more fitting, considering the context around the writer at the time. You are in the last day of the 19th century, the queen is breathing her last few breaths, and so is the Victorian era. Awaiting just around the corner is a completely new era, a new king, and an entirely new Period entirely different from the Victorian.