The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
The poem entitled "The Darkling Thrush," written by Thomas Hardy, has
a very appealing connotation. The work can be separated into two
parts; the dismal part pertaining to the beginning of winter and the
second part focusing on one small aspect of good in all of the dismal
surrounding it. The general idea of the poem is that the dismal winter
is approaching, but there are some incidences of goodness in this
depressing time.
The first part can be sectioned into the first and second stanzas. The
poem opens with "I leant upon a coppice gate." This is the moment when
the author enters the small wood and begins to narrate his thoughts
and feelings. The next line, lines two and three, talk about "The
frost was specter-gray and winters dregs made desolate." This
describes that the author feels that during this season, the idea of
frost and no greenery, makes the winter a very desolate season. The
fourth line is very interesting. It states "The weakening eye of day."
This displays that during the winter, the time of day shortens. The
author relates this shortening of daylight to the weakening of the
eye. Lines seven and eight also help to describe the desolates of the
winter months. It states "And all mankind…sought their household
fires." This line suggests that the narrator views the summer months
as a time of friendliness and togetherness. During the winter months,
people close up and seek their homes for warmth.
The second stanza, which is also considered to be in the first part of
the poem, depicts the death of the winter months. Lines nine and ten
seem to convey this thought most clearly. It...
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... gloom…'
can be associated with a God-like figure in a religious sense that
brings hope. However if the religious theme is not to be taken the
'Aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small…'
may represent one voice of a natural world, the bird being a natural
feature.. The bird is a symbol of all things on earth that is pure, a
joy that is a result of this pureness.
Hardy manages to put together an amazing piece of poetry, not only due
to language and tone of the poem, but also the fact that he manages to
become a poet, within a poet describing the scene before him. Although
he is the writer of the piece, he places an unknown individual in the
scene, describing the feelings the dawn of a new century brings. The
poem concludes cleverly with a mingling of melancholy as well as hope,
a contradiction within itself.
The most noticeable aspect of the structure of the entire poem is the lack of capital letters and periods. There is only one part in the entire forty lines, which is at the very end, and this intentional punctuation brings readers to question the speaker’s literacy. In fact, the speaker is very young, and the use of punctuation and hyphens brings to attention the speaker’s innocence, and because of that innocence, the
Birds are truly amazing creatures and all of their characteristics allow them to be used as symbols to express a variety of things. They can be used as symbols of love, of peace, of life, of death, of people, of freedom and restraint. “Jane Eyre” and “Sula” are two examples of how one symbol can have multiple uses. In both books, birds were used to develop the identities of the characters, to foreshadow different events in the stories and help develop the plots and settings of the stories. I believe both Charlotte Bronte and Toni Morrison made great literary choices by choosing to use birds as symbols in their stories. Both stories are beautifully written with their metaphors of birds. I think that it is great that one symbol can be used to express two opposing views – one of freedom and one of restraint
From the very first word of the poem, there is a command coming from an unnamed speaker. This establishes a sense of authority and gives the speaker a dominant position where they are dictating the poem to the reader rather than a collaborative interacti...
to the powerful imagery she weaves throughout the first half of the poem. In addition, Olds
What is unusual about Pastan?s poem is the way she effectively conveys these sentiments by the
The elements in the poem work very well together to help set the theme of this poem. The tone set the overall mood of the poem, so show that it was rushed but not in a chaotic way. The imagery helps to show us little details of the setting, which are very helpful. And finally, the figures of speech, help the reader to compare the scene to things they have experienced in their lifetime to fully understand the poem.
Another symbol is the Pallas. . It seemed that the bird had a purpose for
...for another man, and he still loved her with all his heart, that shows how much passion he had in his life. He transferred this passion throughout all of his work. This passion in my opinion is what made his poems as good as they are. Without that passion, and how devoted he gets to people and things, he never would have been as successful of a poet as he was, and still is to this day.
You should comment upon and compare at least two of his poems and describe the tone he writes in the imagery he uses and the poetical techniques he includes to convey his opinions.
this poem. I believe it is mainly what the poem is about. To make the
...the reader’s or listener’s experience. Finally, the entire poem can be boiled down to one large metaphor between a summer’s day and whoever Shakespeare wrote the poem about, though the metaphor is incomplete due to the summer day failing in comparison. These are just a few of the techniques used in this poem, there are many more that make it great. William Shakespeare does an amazing job of drawing the reader in.
"The point of view which I am struggling to attack is perhaps related to the metaphysical theory of the substantial unity of the soul: for my meaning is, that the poet has, not a personality' to express, but a particular medium, which is only a medium and not a personality, in which impressions and experiences combine in peculiar and unexpected ways."
When reading or listening to poetry, the main objective for me is to feel moved. Happiness, longing, sadness are some of the feelings that can be achieved just by listening to others’ words. It is within these words that creates another world, or separates us from our own. Words all have a certain kind of attachment to them, so if used properly an author can stimulate a reader beyond belief.
... since it deals with the growth of the mind. Therefore, the poet uses syntax and form to emphasize on the important matters that occurred in each stanza.
“The Darkling Thrush” is a sorrowful poem, which uses a variety of writing techniques to present forth the theme of never giving up hope, while still keeping with the bleak atmosphere of the poem. Poet and novelist Thomas Hardy wrote this poem on December 31, 1899, the last day of the 19th century. The speaker in the poem creates a gloomy and negative tone; yet, in the end it becomes slightly more upbeat, when the belief of hope is spread from the thrush. It is dusk and the speaker is alone outside, leaning against a wooden gate. He is an inward character, which is made evident by the dramatized conviction that “all mankind…had sought their household fires.” The land seemed lifeless with nothing growing and no animals near. Amidst the darkness, a frail thrush began to sing a joyful tune. The feeble bird’s ability to throw its soul to the world uplifted the speaker. It was as though the bird knew something hopeful of the future that the speaker did not.