Analysis Of “The Darkling Thrush”, By Thomas Hardy
As the title has already mentioned, this assignment will be an analysis on a poem by Thomas Hardy. The poem is called “The Darkling Thrush”, also known by another title, “By the Century’s deathbed”. My analysis will include elements such as the poems’ setting, structure, imagery, diction, rhyme scheme and theme. I will go into one element at the time, and them give examples from one stanza only in that element. I will not come back to the same elements in the other stanzas, even though they are there. Therefore, this will not be a complete analysis of every element in each of the stanzas. I’d rather prefer to give a thorough description of what the different elements are and then give a few examples of each of them. In then end I will try to come up with a conclusion. Setting: The poem takes place on New Years Eve, the last day of the 19th century. It’s also the end of the Victorian Age. Winter is bringing death and desolation with it. A tired old man leans over a coppice gate in a desolate area, seeing ghosts of the past and little hope in the future. Structure: This poem has 4 stanzas, each with 8 lines. This is what we call an octave. The lines changes between having 4 and 3 stressed syllables in them, which is
called tetrameter (4) and trimeter (3). Since the lines also follow a form of having one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable etc, we also call it iambic. As an example I use the poems 1st stanza. Line number 1, 3, 5 and 7 each have 4 stressed syllables, therefore called iambic tetrameter ( / - / - / - / - ). Line number 2, 4, 6, and 8 each have 3 stressed syllables, therefore called iambic trimeter ( / - / - / - ) I leant upon a coppice gate 1 Where Frost was spectre-gray, 2 And Winter’s dregs made desolate 3 The weakening eye of day. 4 The tangled bine-stems scored the sky 5 Like strings of broken lyres, 6 And all mankind that haunted nigh 7 Had sought their household fires. 8 Imagery: Through the use of personification, symbols, metaphors, alliteration (this last element may also refer to the poems structure) and a selected sort of words, he produces images in the readers mind, when all he really does is just speak from his inner state of mind, as modernists are soon to do. To show the use of imagery in this poem, I’ve taken its 2nd stanza as an example. Here he uses personification on the landscape, thereby referring to an inanimate object as if it were human. He compares the landscape to a dead body lying all around him, and the clouds becoming the coffins top, and the wind his death lament. The poet also makes use of alliteration in this poem. An example from this stanza is corpse, crypt, cloudy, canopy etc, where you easily notice the same sounds repeated several times. This has mostly a decorative effect, but it also makes you focus on these words, thereby revealing parts of the poem’s nature and temperament. The land’s sharp features seemed to be 1 The Century’s corpse outleant, 2 His crypt the cloudy canopy, 3 The wind his death-lament. 4 The ancient pulse of germ and birth 5 Was shrunken hard and dry, 6 And every spirit upon earth 7 Seemed fervourless as I. 8 Diction: The choice of words in this poem has been carefu
Some topics in this essay:
Age Winter,
Queen Period,
Darkling Thrush”,
Thomas Hardy,
,
/ /,
loaded words,
stressed syllables called,
negatively loaded words,
/ / /,
rhyme scheme,
negatively loaded,
stressed syllables,
syllables called,
day 19th century,
elements stanzas,
3 stressed syllables,
joy illimited,
19th century,
day 19th,
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Approximate Word count = 1325
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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