10
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.
Source: Thomas Hardy’s
Poems of the Past and Present
(1903)
Analysis:
The poem “The Darkling Thrush” is set at in the twilight on the last day of the
nineteenth century. The speaker is leaning on a wooden gate looking at the darkening
countryside. The setting creates a bleak, gloomy and depressing mood, making the
speaker “fervourless”. The poet compares the setting sun to “a weakening eye” as night
falls and he describes a “desolate” scene with frost taking over the land like a “corpse”
and stems of trees standing “like strings of broken lyres (harps)”. The time setting of the
poem imparts a sense of loss and sorrow as the day, year and century are ending at
once and it seems to suggest also the end of life and the world. The desolate winter
landscape with no life growing, only the frost shrouding the ground and the wind
making funeral music in the trees, is also eerie, spooky and ghostly. Both the time and
place convey a sense of hopelessness and lifelessness.
Example 4: Form and Structure
Comment on the form and structure of Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush” and
discuss how they help to convey the ideas of the poem.
Analysis:
The poem “The Darkling Thrush” follows a regular form and structure, with four stanzas
of eight lines each. The lines are even in length with a set rhyme scheme (i.e. every
second line rhymes). The regularity mimics the pattern of seasons in nature. While the
poet structures the words into sentences that can run on and take up to four lines, each
stanza is closed with a full stop. The sense of closure matches the theme of death
expressed in the poem, where the speaker laments the loss of life and ending of the
day, the year and the century.