Thomas Hardy
6 TH Y E A R P O E T R Y
The Darkling Thrush
Lines 1 -16
 It is a winter’s evening and the poet is taking a walk in the
countryside.
 He stops and leans upon a gate and views the surrounding
landscape. The gate is at the entrance to a coppice, a thicket of
trees that are grown and regularly cut for timber.
 The sun’s light is beginning to fade. Frost lies upon the ground
and in the fading light seems like a ghostly shade of grey:
“spectre-grey”
 The poet looks up at the sky through the trees. The crisscrossing branches make lines across the sky and the poet
likens them to the broken strings of an instrument: “The
tangled bine-stems scored the sky / Like strings of
broken lyres”
The Darkling Thrush
Lines 1 -16
 The poet is alone. Those that work nearby have gone home to
warm themselves by the fire: “all mankind that haunted
nigh / Had sought their household fires”
 Hardy considers the shape of the landscape before him.
Without leaves the land’s features seems pointed or “sharp”.
 The countryside is likened to a dead body that has been laid
out. The cloudy sky serves as the cover or “canopy” of the
tomb. The wind makes a mournful sound like a “death
lament”
 The natural world seems to have withered and died. The poet
also feels wasted, his enthusiasm and inspiration used up.
The Darkling Thrush
Lines 17-32
 The poet suddenly hears a bird singing in the
branches of the trees above him: “At once a
voice arose among/The bleak twigs
overhead”
 It is a “full-hearted” song of the evening,
expressing limitless joy.
 The poet identifies the bird. It is an old
thrush, its body “frail, gaunt, and small”
 Though it appears frail the thrush sings with
great energy and passion. The poet describes
how his feathers are all ruffled with the effort
it is making to “blast” out its tune.
The Darkling Thrush
Lines 17-32
 Despite the fact that the world around it
appears “bleak” and the light is growing
gloomy, the thrush has “chosen” to
passionately pitch its song against the
growing darkness: “to fling his
soul/Upon the growing gloom”
 Hardy wonders what is inspiring the
“ecstatic sound”. The dreary landscape
doesn’t prompt such joy.
 He concludes that the bird feels or senses
something divine or “blessed” of which
Hardy is unaware.
THEME: Nature
 The poem describes how gloomy the natural world can
appear in winter. The landscape before the poet is
dreary and depressing:
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The only colour is the “spectre-grey” of the frost.
The rotting leaves on the ground are “Winter’s dregs”
The branches of the trees are “tangled” and look like they are
scratching against the sky: “scored the sky”
The countryside’s features are described as “sharp”
The world seems dead. The land resembles a “corpse”, the sky
is like the “canopy” of a “crypt” and the wind is like a death
lament”
The world has lost all energy and life. The sun is “weakening”
THEME: Nature
 The bleak landscape seems to reflect the poet’s own
mood. He describes himself as “fervourless”
(passionless).
 The lyre is a traditional symbol of poets. The image of
the broken strings of the lyre then represents the loss
of inspiration that the poet is experiencing.
 But the poem also reveals how the natural world can
inspire and give reason for hope. The poet is surprised
to hear a bird singing with such enthusiasm in this
environment. He wonders if the bird can sense the
presence of God in the world.
LANGUAGE
Metaphor:
 The poet uses a metaphor to describe the sun, referring to it
as the “weakening eye of a day”
 He also uses a metaphor to describe the land as a “corpse”
 He also compares the sky to a burial chamber: “His crypt
the cloudy canopy”
Simile:
 He uses a simile when he compares the stems of the trees to
“strings of broken lyres”
LANGUAGE
Personification:
The poet personifies the century that has just passed,
comparing it to a “corpse” that has been laid to rest.
Sounds:
There are many examples of alliteration and assonance in
the poem:
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The repeated ‘d’ sounds in the third line are an example of alliteration
Lines 10 and 11 feature repeated ‘c’ sounds
Assonance and alliteration feature in the first line of the third stanza
and the fourth stanza.
During Wind and Rain
 In this poem the poet describes the activities
of a particular family.
 In the first stanza they are singing their
favourite (“dearest”) songs together. The
whole family is involved: “He, she, all of
them”, some sing the higher parts, some
the lower and some middle range: “Treble
and tenor and bass” and one of the
family accompanies them with an
instrument: “And one to play”
 It is evening and the room they perform in
is lit by candles, which softly illuminate the
faces of the family members: “With the
candles mooning each face"
During Wind and Rain
 In the second stanza the
family are out in the garden,
clearing the moss that has
appeared on the walls.
 They are “Making the
pathways neat” and the
garden pleasant or “gay”.
They construct a seat in the
shade of the trees where they
can escape the heat of the sun
and again, everyone is
involved: “Elders and
juniors”
During Wind and Rain
 In the third stanza they happily eat
breakfast in the garden: “They are
blithely breakfasting all”. The
word “blithely” suggests that they
don’t have a care in the world.
 They sit beneath the shade of a
“summer tree” with a view of the
bay before them.
 While they eat, domesticated fowl
come up to them: “While pet fowl
come to knee”
During Wind and Rain
 In the final stanza the family are in the process of
moving to a larger house: “They change to a high
new house”.
 All their possessions are gathered in the garden, ready
for the move: “Clocks and carpets and chairs”
 They are a wealthy family and they own many fine
things: “brightest things that are theirs”
During Wind and Rain
 However, all the while that the family are enjoying themselves and
working to make their world more comfortable and pretty, the years are
racing by. The poet is conscious of this fact and the notion disturbs and
horrifies him: “Ah, no; the years O!”
 Time is a destructive force that will eventually destroy everything.
Evidence of this is always close to the family though they seem oblivious to
it:
 While the family “sing their dearest songs” the leaves outside are
being stripped from the trees in great number.
 While they are busy making their garden neat, “white storm-birds
fly” overhead, a sign a storm is brewing.
 The poet describes a rose that has grown rotten being stripped from the
wall.
In time, all members of the family will be dead and buried beneath the
earth. The poem ends with an image of rain falling on their gravestones:
“Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs”
THEME: Life Is Fragile
 The poem describes a world that seems not to care about
our existence. The family busy themselves with their
various activities but all the while destructive forces are at
play.
 The poem’s title is “During Wind and Rain” and it
suggests that our lives are lived in the midst of dark forces
that will eventually destroy us and all we build.
 The family in the poem seems unaware of this terrible fact,
though it is something the poet cannot forget.
 They sing their songs and happily eat their breakfast,
seemingly oblivious to the storms and winds that rage
around them.
THEME: Life Is Fragile
 There is a sense in which the family seem to think they can
master and tame the natural world:
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The clear the moss that creeps up the walls of the house
The cut back the grasses and weeds that cover the pathways
They build a seat with a canopy to shield them from the sun
The keep domestic birds in the garden that are comfortable around the
family.
 Such activities give the impression that they are in control of
their environment. But the poem suggests that we can never
master or tame the natural world.
 In the end, the storms will destroy any efforts we make to tidy
the world around us, and the weeds and plants will continue to
return and grow. The winds and rains will persevere long after
have died and will rain down on our graves.
LANGUAGE
Form:
The poem is made up of four seven-line stanzas. The first
five lines of each stanza describe a cheerful family scene,
while the last two lines focus on the destructive passage of
time.
Atmosphere and Tone:
The opening lines are bright and cheerful and the
atmosphere is pleasant. However, the tone changes
dramatically in the sixth line when the poet observes how
time is forever passing.
LANGUAGE
Sounds:
 The poet uses alliteration in the first line of the third stanza
with the repeated ‘b’ sound.
 Alliteration also features in the final line of the third stanza,
the repeated ‘r’ sounds creating an unpleasant sound: “rotten
rose is ript”
 The repeated ‘c’ sounds in the fourth stanza offers us a further
example of alliteration: “Clocks and carpets and chairs”
 The poem also features examples of assonance. It is there in
“rotten rose” and also in the final line of the poem with the
repeated long vowel sounds give the line a threatening feel:
“Down their carved name s the rain-drop ploughs”