Write the critical appreciation of the Darkling Thrush.

Ans.

Introduction

‘The Darkling Thrush‘ is a fine lyric written by Hardy. It was written on December 31, 1900, at the evening of Millennium. The subject of the poem is that the poet grieves at the death of the year. Not only the year but the whole century was passing that night. It is a fine illustration of joy in nature as well as of his pessimism. The poet refers the ‘corpse’ of the nineteenth century. The poem contains four stanzas of eight lines each. It is a good combination of beauty and desolation. The poet finds the Nature pretty but full of supernatural beauty and lamenting on the death of the departing century.

Summary of the Poem

The poet is standing at the beginning of the forest. In the beginning of this forest the poet looks the typical trees and creepers. He did not enter the dark woods. Atmosphere is covered with ghostly mist. Season of the winter is dirty and there is a slight darkness in the atmosphere. He watched the twisting creepers like the broken wires of a lyre. People are haggard and returning towards their homes. Clouds are visible in the shape of a canopy over the dead body of the year. There is no germination of the seed. Every object in Nature seems desolated. The poet grew sad but all of a sudden, he heard a tired sound of thrush coming from some dark area. The song of the bird seemed to break the monotony of the atmosphere. For a moment the poet grew happy but soon he came to recollect that he himself was not a good singer like the bird. Perhaps the bird bad some pleasant source of inspiration which the poet did not possess.

Irony and pessimism of the Poem

‘The Darkling Thrush’ is based upon an ironic contrast between the negative scene of the first two stanzas and the bird’s joyful song in the last two stanzas which suggest the possibility of hope. This queer vein of contradictory ideas suggests to Hardy that there may be hope after desolation. The poet is not perfectly assured of this hope rather it is his suggestion or affirmation. The pathos of the poem lies in Hardy’s reserve tendency which suggests the possibility of hope in a world of death. Bird’s song reminds the poet of this hope but on the other hand he does not claim to possess the same source of inspiration as the bird had.

Language

No doubt that The Darkling Thrush is a fine lyric. It depicts poet’s mood of the death of the year and century. Though Nature is pretty yet the poet does not enjoy it due to external reasons. The poem is Hardy’s tribute to the passing of a century and the welcome of the new one. Dusk, bleak winter and closing of an era show poet’s melancholy but all of a sudden the voice of the thrush gives the poet a hope. Beginning two stanzas are a dirge but the last two stanzas describe a welcome to the new era — a symbol of hope through the song of the thrush. Language of the poem is emphatic having the rhyme scheme of ab. ab in all four stanzas.