MODEL ESSAY ON THOMAS HARDY’S ‘THE DARKLING THRUSH’*

COMMENT CLOSELY ON THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT, FOCUSING IN PARTICULAR ON HOW IT EXPRESSES THE DEVELOPMENT OF HARDY’S VIEW OF A ‘NEW WORLD’.

THE DARKLING THRUSH

I learnt upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-gray,

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 crept the cloudy canopy,

The wind his death-lament.

The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard an 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

The poem,‘The Darkling Thrush’ is one of the poems written by Hardy on the eve of the 20^th Century. It is also a time when the poet is advanced in age and for him too, it is like standing between the past and the future. The past is synonymous with rapid industrial growth with its attendant complications and challenges. However, the poem gives a hint of hope to what would have otherwise been a rather pessimistic poem in the ‘new world’, which the poet is able to see.

Hardy uses contrast of two different worlds, the old and the new one to accentuate the emergence of the other one. The old one  is the world portrayed in the first two stanzas in the poem. Even from the leaning of the persona on the coppice gate, a picture of frustration is created. The setting during winter equally creates a dreary and dying atmosphere. The visual imageries employed paint a world of abnormality and oddity. This explains the Frost that is ‘spectre gray’ and the ‘Winter’s dregs’ that ‘made desolate the weakening eye of day’. The sombre and sorrowful atmosphere is complemented by a rich vein of auditory imagery captured through the sounds coming from strings of broken lyres. The scene of death becomes more pungent in the second stanza, only that this time, the state of things the persona confesses bear semblance to his deplorable condition.

To accentuate this contrast, sound effects are also employed. The first two stanzas are marked by many end-stops to create a sombre, solemn and dreary feeling. The only exceptions are in the first and seventh lines where domestic atmosphere is created. However, in the third stanza when the bird comes to the scene, there is ample application of enjambment, to create a sense of hope, excitement and rejuvenation. Where there are exceptions in caesuras and end-stops, they are applied to check the outflow of excitement

The suddenness of the emergence of the bird’s voice is quite dramatic and effective in introducing the new world in the poem. This appearance is also well captured by the vivid description of the bird as aged, frail, gaunt, and small. The irony here is that one would expect the kind of voice of far-reaching consequence that emanates from the bird to come from a rather beautiful and robust bird. For emphasis, the poet employs  caesuras to mark these epithets. The imagery of the sacrificial nature of the bird is created as it willingly decides to ‘fling his soul’ to save a dying world.

One effect that is presented and would raise a question is, why such a new inspiration would could from an unlikely source of an old and dying bird? Hardy probably believes, as it has been depicted  in most of his poems that, it is only in the old and new order, meeting in cooperation that the future could be secured. The bird thus brings a sense of hope to a hopeless world.

The poem that opens on a pessimistic tone ends in a rather optimistic one. The objectivity of the persona is quite interesting. Though he does not seem to have been fully bought over by the ecstasy or even convinced by it, he could not but appreciate its desirability at this point in time. Though he still carries the tired countenance and feeling of the old, passing century, he now appreciates the prospect of something positive that the future would yield.