The Darkling Thrush... by Thomas Hardy-Summary&Explanation
The famous poem "Darkling Thrush" was composed by Thomas Hardy, a great nature poet. It was published on 29 December 1900, under the title "By the Century's Deathbed". Thomas Hardy was a great poet of nature. This poem is a sweet song of a singing bird Thrush. It is a small bird of nightingale's family generally found in Europe and Asia. The small bird Thrush sings a very sweet song. Her song fills the ears of the poet with her sweet voice. Thus Thrush fills the sad atmosphere with her melodious song.
The poem is an example of the poet's pessimistic nature and dejection. and expresses his intense discontent with the world. This poem also expresses his love for nature. He has used various natural objects in this poem in an impressive way. The poet is very much impressed with the old bird Thrush. This poem presents a feeling of hopelessness. We feel It from the very beginning of the poem. The poet starts this poem with a foggy and misty atmosphere which arises the pessimistic thought into the mind of the poet. But when the poet listens to the sweet song of little bird Thrush. It fills the ears of the poet with sweetness. This sweet music removes the pessimistic thoughts from the mind of the poet. Thus we can say that Hardy is pessimistic by nature and his pessimism reflects in his poems also.
The Darkling Thrush....Poem explanation
The Darkling Thrush is a remarkable composition of Thomas Hardy. It was written on the eve of the new century. like other poems of Hardy It also expresses the feelings of pessimism and sorrow. It is a very popular poem in the world of English poetry. The poem starts with the atmosphere of a cold and foggy winter morning. The is eye scattered everywhere. It is an extremely cold day. The poet is going somewhere suddenly He sees a garden gate. He stays there and observes the atmosphere of the surroundings. The atmosphere is foggy and misty. The trees, bushes and small plants are not looking clearly. They are not visible due to fog and mist. At the time of the evening, The Sun becomes less hot and less bright due to cold and mist.
The entangled branches are seeming like wires of broken Lyres. The lyre is a musical instrument having wires or chord. Here poet means to say that a broken instrument cannot produce melodious music. Thus there is despair in the atmosphere everywhere. Even those people who mostly used to come there are not looking there because of extremely cold weather. The poet says that those people who used to come here often now pass their time at their home by setting aside to the fire. The description of all these things like entangled branches, fog and very less sunshine has symbolic meaning. Fog is the symbol of chaos and entangled branches are the symbol of struggle.
The poet beautifully presents his ideas here. He presents the mankind who has lost his faith in chaos and conflict. People are confused here. The fog, mist and entangled branches are the symbols of confused people. The poet declares here that the people are totally confused now due to the darkness of ignorance. The atmosphere is also very pessimistic.
Here the poet presents the cold and foggy winter morning. the poet says that the 19th century is going to end and people are lost in conflicts still. The poet remembers the old time when all people are full of energy and spirit. But now that glory and brightness of the century were declining with the growing confusions and conflicts of mankind. The poet is worried that the 19th century has lost in confusions and conflicts.
the poet compares the cloudy sky with the grave of a human being. And blowing cold wind is compared with the mourning song, a song sung on the death of someone. The poet declares here that every spirit here is declining day by day due to cold of ignorance. Here we can say that there is no hope in the atmosphere of despair.
The glory of the ancient time is declining day by day under the growing confusions and conflicts of mankind.
There is a lack of enthusiasm among the people of the country. Though the old faith is declining yet new ideas are not growing well. The poet is extremely depressed here. He sees no beam of hope anywhere. While sitting hopelessly the poet suddenly listens to the sweet voice of Thrush that fills the poet's mind and heart with new hope. The bird Thrush fills the gloomy atmosphere with joy and cheerfulness. The poet gets impressed with the song of an aged Thrush. The bird was looking physically weak and aged. still, she was singing so sweetly. The dense fog of despair has gone away with her fast moving feathers. Her voice was so sweet that the poet lost in the world of happiness forgetting his sadness.
The bird seems divine to the poet. She is inspired with divinity. She is looking like an angel sent by God on the Earth to remove the mist of conflict and confusion from the mind of people. The poet was very much inspired by the sweet song of Thrush that he decides to raise his voice in the world to remove confusions and conflicts from the hearts of people. Thus the little Thrush fills the atmosphere with new hope, joy and inspiration. The bird is the symbol of the beam in the darkness of confusion. Really this poem is a very symbolic poem. It starts with disappointment but ends with new hope. It fills not only the poet' s heart with new hope but also the readers' heart. It inspires the readers too much to have hope in the tough situations of life.
