3.26.2008

235. The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

This poem has a speaker who is wandering aimlessly through a barren winter landscape, describing the sheer desolation of the season. With this perspective Hardy allows for a human narration on the sad natural state of the winter season. in addition to the human aspect of this poem to contribute to its melancholic tone, Hardy uses an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme that creates a rhythm for the speaker's words. He also implements the technique of making the lines of the poem follow an eight syllable-six syllable scheme that makes the poem more melodic than it would be with merely rhyming end words. With the parallel syllabic structure of the poem, the connection to a bird's song is strengthened, and it contributes further to the sense of bleakness in the poem.

The main literary devices that Thomas Hardy uses in this poem are personification and language choice. This poem personifies winter, and offers the thrush a few human aspects as well. To emphasize the personification of winter and its various components, Hardy capitalizes the first letter of Frost, Winter, Century, and Hope to heighten their human relation by making them out to be actual names. He describes Frost as "specter-gray" which, as well as personifying, is a good choice of words. Winter is made out to have "dregs" and "The land's sharp features seemed to be/ The Century's corpse outleant"(Line 9-10), and the century's grave is a "cloudy canopy," "the wind his death-lament." These descriptions, as well as choices of words, all contribute to the overall sense of sad and grayness of the poem. The change in the poem occurs when the thrush begins to sing, and Hardy writes "An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,/In blast beruffled plume,/ Had chosen thus to fling his soul/ Upon the growing gloom"(Line 21-24). This flinging of the soul is another excellent choice of diction because it is showing how the bird is putting his entire being into his joyful song, to balance out the bleak season.

I liked this poem a lot because of its natural, melancholic depiction of winter, as well as the little bit of "Hope" that is seen at the end of the poem. The piece captures the cold bleak grayness that winter seems to always have, and with the human perspective shows how nature sometimes knows best. The bird is a sign to the man that as miserable as the winter is, it will one day be over, and the warmth and soft breezes of spring will be upon them. I found that although the poem was generally sad in tone, the final two stanzas showed that faith had to put into nature that one day things would be happy and comfortable for all again.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is an excellent analysis :D

Unknown said...
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