POEM SUMMARY "THE DARKLING THRUSH" BY THOMAS HARDY

THE DARKLING THRUSH

I leant upon a coppice gate
      When Frost was specter-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.

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.

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.

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.

SUMMARY!!!!!

THE DARKLING

It was the cold season in which the poet had visited a garden. The days were made weak by winter and they were frosty. All the trees were still and people were confined to their household fire as it was very cold.

The whole atmosphere is portrayed as dull and desolate. The still garden the cold weather reminded the poet of corpses and mourners at the graveyard. This poem was supposed to have been written in December, 1990, described by the poet called the''corpse of the Century". As the old century came to an end, everything appeared as dead and hopeless as the poet himself felt.

At that still moment, a joyous song was heard by the poet. A full-throated song, sung by an old thrush was heard and the mournful mood of the poet started changing. The aged bird has chosen to strike a note of new hope. The growing gloom is checked by that spirited song. Till then the poem didn't hear such ecstatic sounds on the earth. Hopeful thoughts and cheer filled the atmosphere. The poet felt that ecstasy of the bird was not known to him till then and without its knowledge, the bird had lifted his mood from a melancholic state to a joyful state. Thus the poem which began sorrowfully ended on a of hope note. So also the mood of the poet changed from gloom to hope. 

POEM VIDEO

BY THOMAS HARDY