Works of Thomas Hardy discussion

THE DARKLING THRUSH



Songthrush - Watercolour by Gordon Beningfield

The Darkling Thrush

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
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 haunted 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 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 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.

It's clear why The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy is such a favourite poem for many people. First of all we have a dreary landscape. It is frozen and dark. This scene inspires the speaker, Thomas Hardy, to consider death and how it comes for everyone and everything.

He wonders why he should be happy when there is no way to escape this ultimate end. The only thing that cheers the scene is the sound of a bird singing. It confuses him, but he doesn’t think too hard about it. He’s happy enough knowing it exists.

If the words are confusing look here https://www.hardysociety.org/media/bi...

It beings with a glossary of terms, and then gives a detailed commentary of this poem, for those who like to delve a little deeper.

Personally, I think it significant that Thomas Hardy wrote this poem right at the very end of the nineteenth century, on 31st December 1900. It's reflective, but shows his confused attempt at hopeful thoughts towards the new twentieth century.

Song birds are a recurring motif in many of Thomas Hardy's poems. He is considered to belong to the Naturalist movement; he can often fit with the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature. But here he comes across as essentially a Romantic poet, with a carefully structured piece, in which the song thrush seems to express emotion in its song, and which we are intended to recognise as joy.

We modern readers tend to interpret bird-song differently. We enjoy the variety, whilst knowing that birdsong is a expression of territorial possession. Birdsong in poetry has never gone out of fashion, but today’s poets content themselves with more descriptive representations. It is doubtful whether a modern poet would depict the sheer joy and pleasure in life of the song thrush.

But what do you think?

I think the ending of the 19th century is apparent in the first stanza: the setting, the mood and also Hardy's tone I guess is not hopeful, toward the new century. He also points out the broken lyres, ancient pulse of germ and birth was now already like a corspe; meaning the classical era more like the romantic era is getting to it's end and so did the romantic spirit of human kind. There's only one evensong (which is often related in religious matter), and caroling cause joyful song amid this mornful evening. I think Hardy's wanna say the hopefulness lies in some form of religion but at last he also said he was unaware: he doesn't believe in it.

That's very perceptive, Yoonme. It's as if the thrush can experience joy, but he can't.

All Thomas Hardy's work is saturated with his beliefs. He agonised over the Church's disapproval of his novels, but disliked the dogmatic religious beliefs that had begun to sweep England. We have to remember that he lived at the time when there was a reaction by many Christian leaders against Charles Darwin and his The Origin of Species (1859).

Thomas Hardy slowly moved from the Christian teachings of his boyhood to become a thoughtful, questioning agnostic. We see a lot of this questioning popping up in various places. It is possible that he felt it was less controversial doing this by means of poetry than in a novel, and this is why he retreated into poetry for his final years.

A lovely choice of poem, Jean. I had to think hard about frost being ‘spectre-grey’ rather than white but it would have been one of those dull, grey, winter twilights when everything appears ghostly. I love the continuation of this imagery in ‘mankind that haunted nigh’.

It seems Hardy was depressed at leaving the century behind. I find this odd - although it may be connected with his personal circumstances - as the start of a new century for us was an exciting time. The mood of the poem isn’t forward looking at all. Then he hears the thrush’s song which, for me, is one of the most joyful sounds in nature and would surely lift anyone’s spirits. Not so Hardy. Why not? Why does he feel no hope about the start of a new year and a new century?

Thanks Jean for choosing this poem and then explaining it so eloquently. I can see the symbolism but I think the thrush also reflects the old seeing new opportunities in the new year/century.

At first only having skimmed over the poem (esp. as I didn´t understand all the vocabulary, so thanks for the link Jean!), I thought that in dark times (described by the wintery atmosphere) there could still be positive notes and aims (the song of the thrush).
Having had a closer look, I saw that the thrush was old and the author didn´t see the positive side.

I will give this poem further thought and reflection, and then offer comments. But I wanted to comment initially about some of the reactions to it — especially about what could be perceived as Hardy’s concern about the century just arriving. I will say that Hardy’s clairvoyance was incredibly accurate. And the tone superbly rendered, as The Great War was only a half a generation ahead.

This poem was originally entitled “By the Century’s Deathbed, 1900.” There was also the year 1899 noted on a draft, so it may have been written in that year.

Perhaps Hardy felt the original title gave too much away. Even the adjective “darkling” seems rather forward, given that the thrush is not really a bearer of darkness or gloom in the poem.

When I read this poem, I think of the word “ruminating.” Ruminating can have both positive and negative attachments. Psychologists would say decidedly negative. I sense a worry in the poem.

John wrote: "This poem was originally entitled “By the Century’s Deathbed, 1900.” There was also the year 1899 noted on a draft, so it may have been written in that year..."

That's interesting John! The Hardy Society noted (in the link I gave) that it was first printed as ‘By the Century’s Deathbed’ in The Graphic on 29th December 1900, but the date in books is 31st December 1900.

Bionic Jean wrote: "John wrote: "This poem was originally entitled “By the Century’s Deathbed, 1900.” There was also the year 1899 noted on a draft, so it may have been written in that year..."

That's interesting Joh..."

Jean, I actually think his original title would have been preferable. But, then again, perhaps he was looking for more subtlety. The poem seems to me to be written as wanting to break away from his mood about the century. The thrush seems almost capable of doing that for him, but I come away from it as not being successful.

It's certainly ambivalent isn't it John?

The original title stresses the underlying gloom he always felt, so since birds were such a positive motif for him, perhaps that's why he chose it, in the spirit of, as you say, "wanting to break away from his mood about the century". Also, I feel the new title will have been, and remains, one which appeals to the general reader.

It's interesting to conjecture!

He may have suffered from seasonal affective disorder, something I experience myself every winter. I don’t know if there is any scientific explanation for this but I get quite depressed and go into semi hibernation mode where I find it very difficult to motivate myself to do things.

A bit of sunshine and warmth lifts my spirits just like the thrush’s song has done in the poem.

Now there's a thought! I can't remember any suggestion from his bio ... but maybe someone else can. Recognising the symptoms from an earlier time is tricky. Thanks Susan!

Susan wrote: "He may have suffered from seasonal affective disorder, something I experience myself every winter. I don’t know if there is any scientific explanation for this but I get quite depressed and go into..."

That’s very interesting. The great poetry critic Michael Schmidt — who is an admirer of Hardy — has written that the one word that best describes most of Hardy’s poetry is melancholy.

Perfect!

I like that the thrush is "aged" - a thrush who knows the seasons will turn?

This poem is so in keeping with my own mood here after all the last few years of social upheaval, pandemic, etc.

It is a poem that has also been keeping with my mood, perhaps longer and deeper than I wish to admit.

Its a poignant poem for sure, and perhaps we bring our own nuances to it? Classic poetry has that way of speaking to us, whatever the century or culture.

Lisa - I will, whenever I lead :) But you can always find a poem and commentary on the Thomas Hardy society website, if others have a different style of leading.

Between discussions on Hardy in a couple of a classes and reading The Mayor of Casterbridge, I've come to the conclusion that Hardy was a decided pessimist. I think this poem is one of the purest reflections of where his view of the world had brought him. He rejected any form of higher purpose and that made him sink into the mire of hopelessness.

The comment in the last few lines of the poem confirms this view for me: "His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware."
Hardy was grasping after the joy of nature and loved it but somehow could not share in that joy. I think it's incredibly sad and interesting.

I agree about Hardy's pessimism. I sometimes say to myself I may be better off reading someone with a lighter view of things. Then again, when he does write poems that have a lighter view -- and there are not a lot of them -- he shines. I think of poems like The Oxen or The Proud Songsters. I guess in the lighter aspect of his work, it is quality over quantity.

John wrote: "I agree about Hardy's pessimism. I sometimes say to myself I may be better off reading someone with a lighter view of things. Then again, when he does write poems that have a lighter view -- and th..."

Interesting! I did not know that he had lighter works. I'll have to check them out :)

I find him poignant in this poem, though yes, he was not naturally optimistic!

I think Hardy’s pessimism had a lot to do with his seeming clairvoyance about the century ahead. He straddled the Victorian and Modern eras, much as he did the 19th and 20th centuries. He lived through the calamity of the Great War, which changed so much the world as those who knew it. The 20th Century was as awful as it gets. His pessimism, to me, seems both fitting and accurate.

Hardy often dashes a little sprig of hope (often hard to find) in his bleakest works.

I love his use of sound and alliteration:


"The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament."

Everything is depressed and "fervourless".

Yet the old, "blast-beruffled" thrush finds something to sing for and about.

I think that Hardy's thrush is among the great birds of literature: Keats's nightingale, Shelley's skylark, Coleridge's albatross, the "indignant desert birds" from Yeats along with the gold enamal music box bird. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Bird." Elizabeth Bishop's "Sandpiper". Birds sing, as do bards.

Natalie wrote: "Hardy often dashes a little sprig of hope (often hard to find) in his bleakest works.

I love his use of sound and alliteration:


"The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outle..."

That’s a great thought about the great birds of literature. I like the list and would add Ted Hughes’ crow.

Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow is one savage bird :(

Very nice post Natalie :)

There's something very hypnotic about alliteration, isn't there?

Birds are a favourite motif in Thomas Hardy - as they are for several Victorian/Edwardian writers. In Thomas Hardy they usually represent freedom, as in a yearning for freedom.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow is one savage bird :(

Very nice post Natalie :)

There's something very hypnotic about alliteration, isn't there?

Birds are a favourite mot..."

In my opinion, of all the poetry books published after World War 2, and to this day, Crow by Ted Hughes is the greatest of them all.

It's very complex, but then most of his works are ... my copy was a present from my boyfriend (now husband) when it was first published! Quite an eye-opener after his previous one ... but I'm getting right off the subject here! So ...

The poet Tom Paulin in Thomas Hardy: The Poetry of Perception says that:

"The thrush, as well as being a unique living creature, also represents humanity ... man just coping and surviving like the ploughman and broken-down old horse in '"In Time of the Breaking of Nations".

He also asserts that "The Darkling Thrush" is "a humanist's hymn that expresses a very tentative belief in human progress".

I found those interesting thoughts.

Hardy chose to include this poem in his second book of poetry entitled Poems of Past and Present.

The title of this book seems to encompass the theme, in a way, of the Darkling Thrush. Perhaps an interesting inclusion because Hardy sometimes included in later works poems that dated as far back as 1870. I envision him reaching for poems on a shelf and saying maybe this one or maybe that one.

Interesting discussion! I like the revised title - there always seems to me to be a lot to unpack just in the word "darkling" alone. I see its meaning variously: most straightforwardly, the evening thrush, that is the one who happens to be singing at dusk; it's also a portent of the century to come, which Hardy doesn't view very hopefully, despite the beauty of the song; it's essentially a Romantic word, so it has connotations of that movement's naturalism; it fits, too, with the descriptions of the thrush as old and worn, both literally and as a metaphor for humanity... I'm running out here but I'm sure there are more ways to interpret it if I think about it some more (but I'm writing this on my phone which isn't ideal!)

GeraniumCat wrote: "there always seems to me to be a lot to unpack just in the word "darkling" alone ..."

Oh yes! It is full of meaning and import. The article I linked to talks of its history in poetry, saying that as well as the extremely formal structure we've discussed, throughout the poem The darkling thrush, Thomas Hardy was consciously using words with a long poetic history.

"Darkling" means in darkness, or becoming dark, and this is literally true because Thomas Hardy can still see the landscape, and the sun is "weakening" but not completely set. So the title is a sort of shorthand for "the thrush that sang as night was approaching."

But the word "darkling" has a tremendous history in poetry, and is rarely used elsewhere now. It goes back to the mid-fifteenth century. In Paradise Lost: Book III, John Milton describes the nightingale:

"the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal Note …

John Keats also famously uses the word "darkling" in his ‘Ode to a Nightingale’:

‘Darkling, I listen …’

(I think that this was the first time I ever came across the word, at school! Though both John Keats and Thomas Hardy have just been announced as no longer being in the English Literature curriculum in English schools.)

Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach talks about "the darkling plain".

And we've already identified that there is a long and famous tradition of poems about birds. As well as those already mentioned, there are ones by William Cowper and William Wordsworth.

We have started a new poem today, led by John, but I'll leave this current for a day or so more.

Bionic Jean wrote: "GeraniumCat wrote: "there always seems to me to be a lot to unpack just in the word "darkling" alone ..."

Oh yes! It is full of meaning and import. The article I linked to talks of its history in ..."

Keats and Hardy no longer in the curriculum? That is strange and sad. What prompted it?

Diversity in the curriculum. It's difficult, as I can see and approve what they are trying to do, but I wish they hadn't excluded two of my favourite authors :(

Bionic Jean wrote: "Diversity in the curriculum. It's difficult, as I can see and approve what they are trying to do, but I wish they hadn't excluded two of my favourite authors :("

Oh well. I can’t say I agree with it, but I am 40 years out of schooling.

That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

Didn't Hardy coin the word 'unhope' for one of his poems? I seem to be living in unhope right now. Indeed, the spectre-grey of winter can evoke a season of brooding to particularly inclined souls.

O sweet To-morrow! -
After to-day
There will away
This sense of sorrow.
Then let us borrow
Hope, for a gleaming
Soon will be streaming,
Dimmed by no gray -
No gray!

— Thomas Hardy, Song Of Hope

Jane wrote: "Didn't Hardy coin the word 'unhope' for one of his poems? ..."

Yes he did - well remembered Jane! It was in his poem "In Tenebris" to convey his own deep despair. I am so sorry you perhaps have seasonal affective disorder, Jane, and for all fellow sufferers too.

This first stanza of "Song of Hope" continues with the optimistic message (as I'm sure you know). This is just for others, who may not. It would be a lovely poem to share and discuss as our weekly poem at some stage 😊.

In his poem Hap, which we discussed, Hardy writes “unblooms the best hope.”

Interesting concept: hope was blooming, apparently, and then suddenly it unblooms. I think that poem was my first time seeing the word unblooms.

Perhaps he coined that one too, did he John?

Bionic Jean wrote: "Perhaps he coined that one too, did he John?"

I believe he did. I recall reading a summary that said he may have been as young as 20 when he wrote Hap and youthful daring led to a new word.

And began an occasional habit! Thanks for this interesting fact.