The poem, “The Darkling Thrush” echoes Thomas Hardy’s despair and loss of hope for humanity’s fixture. Read The Darkling Thrush Summary Questions Answers.
The Darkling Thrush Summary Questions Answers
The Darkling Thrush: Poem
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that hunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy.
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry.
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carollings
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, where of he knew
And I was unaware.
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The Darkling Thrush Poem Summary:
The poem, “The Darkling Thrush” echoes Thomas hardy’s despair, own world of pessimism and loss of hope for humanity’s fixture. He saw a death-haunted landscape and a “growing gloom”. The poet laments over passing of agriculture society. The poet also finds nothing encouraging to celebrate England’s rapid industrialization.
The poet thinks that in the process it leads to destroy the customs and traditions of rural life. The speaker’s connection to the past has been secured and he can not find meaning in the present, and the dawning century, symbolized by the thrush’s song, offers little in the way of meaning.
The bird is “frail, gaunt and small,” and his “carolings”, though joyful and “‘full hearted” are an evensong and about to end. The speaker found nothing encouraging nowhere and not even in the speaker’s heart that might bring new beginning.
Here is the theme of despair, death of hope characterized in the poem. Here the poem symbolizes pessimism. This poem uses a bleak and wintry landscape as a metaphor for the close of the 19th century and joyful song of a solitary thrush as symbolic image of the dawning century.
This poem deromanticizes nature governed by the cycle of life and death and is devoid of tradition and customs of rural life. The speaker is left alone outside with death all around him. The century that is passed is now a “corpse outleant”. The sense of loss is everywhere, in the “weaking eye of day; in the Winter’s dregs”.
Central Theme of the Poem The Darkling Thrush:
Geoffrey Harvey calls the poem, The Darkling Thrush, a poem of the highest imaginative order in that the speaker mourns, God’s death as much as the death of nature.
The poem echoes Hardy’s despair, own world-weariness and loss of hope for humanity’s future. He saw a death-haunted landscape and a “glowing gloom”. He mourned the passing of agriculture society and saw little cause to celebrate England’s rapid industrialization which helped destroy the customs and tradition of rural life. The speaker’s connection to the past has been severed, and he cannot find meaning in the present, and the dawning century, symbolized by the thrush’s song, offer little in the way of meaning.
The bird is frail, gaunt and small but its spontaneous song brings a blessed hope in the midst of despair and desolation. The poem embodies pessimism. The poem metaphorically compares the wintry landscape to the close of 19th century as a corpse. It is a transitional poem, illustrating the degradation of cultural and tradition customs.
This poem deromanticizes nature governed by the cycle of life and death and is devoid of tradition and customs of rural life. The speaker is left alone outside with death all around him. The century that is passed is now a “corpse outleant”. The sense of loss is everywhere, in the “weaking eye of day; in the Winter’s dregs”.
The Darkling Thrush Poem Questions Answers:
1.What attitude of the poet is revealed in “The Darkling Thrush”?
Ans: In the poem “The Darkling Thrush” the pessimist Hardy is defeated by the glory of the optimist Thomas Hardy. The poet though describes the dismal atmosphere yet the very germ of new life appears with full radiance of joy. Behind death and despair life and hope emerge out.
2. Bright out the significance of the title of the poem, “The Darkling Thrush”.
Ans: The song of the frail dying thrush carries both the death pang of old century and birth spirit of new century. The poet himself stands on the meeting point of old and new century. This whole picture is symbolized by the thrush. So title is justified.
3. Describe the significance of the song of the thrush.
Ans: The darkling thrush in all its homeliness is the corporeal voice of the real world. It is local manifestation of an aged symbol. The bird’s song is spontaneous and unpremeditated art. The spontaneous song of the thrush comes out from spontaneous soul puts an antithesis of the poet’s dispirited soul. The song of the thrush is indicative of some blessed hope in the midst of hopelessness and frustration. Thus the song of the thrush stands for the new hope and joy. Its song was to brighten up the gloom.
4. How is the century personified in the poem?
Ans: In the poem we find the personification of the nineteenth century. The landscape’s features became like an immense body stretched out. Corpse means a dead body. The dead body of the century is stretched out for burial, the poet thinks. The poet imagines that the nineteenth century was coming to an end. The gloomy dreary and desolate weather of the land looked like an outstretched dead body of the century.
5. What does the phrase “some blessed hope” suggest?
Ans: The phrase “some blessed hope” suggests that, despite the prevailing scene of despair, the speaker still clings to a glimmer of hope and bright future. It is not an externally oriented hope for the future so much as an internally oriented hope that we can continue to assert human values, no matter how the age has been and is by inhumanity. The “blessed hope” is a knowledge the poet is yet unaware of. It is the poet’s optimistic attitude that gloom and despair must be followed by hope and joy.
6. How does Hardy describe the winter scene in the poem The Darkling Thrush?
Ans: The poet has painted the dark and gloomy atmosphere in the evening of dying century. Trees are leafless. Nature seems to be in the state of lamentation at the death of the century. White frost covers the whole region and darkness engulfs the atmosphere. Hardy thinks of the wintry landscape as a corpse of the dying century. The above cloudy sky appears as the underground vault in which the corpse would be kept.
7. What is the significance of the darkling thrush in the poem?
Ans: The darkling thrush in the poem symbolizes some blessed hope in the midst of hopelessness and frustration. Its song amidst the desolation of winter landscape serves as a bacon of optimism and renewal. Here the word ‘darkling’ means a sense of darkness and obscurity suggesting the uncertainty and hollowness of the future. The spontaneous joy of the thrush can only be heard as an ironic comment on humanity’s joyless state.
8. How does the poem address themes of time and change?
Ans: The poem explores the passage of time and the poet mourns the passing of agriculture society and saw little cause to celebrate England’s rapid industrialization which helped destroy the customs and tradition of rural life. The poem is about a transition into a new century emphasizing the cyclical nature of life and the potential for renewal despite despair.
9. What is the overall message of the poem, “The Darkling Thrush”?
Ans: The poem conveys a message of finding hope and joy in the midst of despair, desolation. The poet finds little encouraging in the transition into industrialization. At the same time the spontaneous song of the thrush bears some “blessed hope” emphasizing the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of nature’s vitality.
10. Explain the line – “So little cause for carollings/ Of such ecstatic sound”
Ans: The ecstatic sound refers to the song of the thrush. Though the song was meant for the farewell to the dying century but beneath it the song embodies some blessed hope for new century and bears within itself the immense prospect of possibilities in the future. So it is referred to here as ecstatic sound hearlding the joy and hope for future.
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