The Darkling Thrush - Thomas Hardy

 

 

The Darkling Thrush  - Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy an English poet and novelist of 19^th century is the author of poem ‘The Darkling Thrush’. The poem describes a desolate landscape which is reflective of the poet’s own feeling of desolation and emptiness. It is written in December 1900. It reflects on the end of the 19^th century. The poem has two parts. The first part deals with the bleakness of nature in winter which inflects the poet who is looking on the scene. In the second part of the poem, the poet talks about the shrill song of the thrush. It symbolizes the indestructible energy of nature.

At the beginning, the poet is leaning on a wooden gate and surveying the surrounding landscape blighted by winter. The sun is setting. The atmosphere looks very bleak. The year has drawn to a close. Hardy uses certain apt images to describe the dismal condition of the time. He says that the year had died. He looks upon the dark clouds in the sky as a tomb containing the dead body of the year. The day is as pale as a ghost. The day is also described as the scum or dregs of the year. The howling wind is regarded as lamentation for the year that has died. Winter has paralysed nature. Hardy observes stagnation everywhere. He says that the cycle of birth and death has stopped. Nature seems to be at standstill. He compares nature to a lyre whose strings are broken with the result that no music is produced.

Hardy is in low spirits. He is ‘fervourless’. The dismal landscape around him reflects his inner emptiness. The poet is lost in sad thoughts. Suddenly the silence is broken by the melodies song of a thrush. The thrush is old. Its feathers have been damaged by a violent storm. Still, the thrush is not disheartened. It continues to pour out its song in the dark night. The poet wonders what could be the motivation or source of the bird’s gaiety. He says that the thrush is hopeful of a future. It is not depressed by the paralyzing effect of winter. It has ‘a blessed hope’ that a better time will be born soon. The bird has this cheerful hope but the poet is depressed.