Hardy

The Darkling Thrush

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 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 overheadIn 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.

- Thomas Hardy

"Poetry is the best words in the best order." - Coleridge

To my knowledge Thomas Hardy is infamous for creating dark, ominous imagery in his poetry. For anyone keen on the concept of "approaches to style" this poem is an example of very select word choice at a very select time.

This particular poem consists of select words which are placed at appropriate points in the work and carry very significant connotations and it is evident that Hardy's has been able to "kill two birds with one stone".

What do I mean?

He delivers a message. It is up to his audience to intake that message and create a meaning. I would assume Hardy had a distinct idea of what he wanted to impress on his audience, therefore he chose words which "gave one idea and alluded to another".

Take for example the title of the poem The Darkling Thrush. The word "Thrush" means "little bird" and his using this description allows both the bird and the bird's environment to be illuminated. If you read further, you find that the orientation of the poem is highlighted with the nouns "coppice", "frost", "winter", "bine-stems", and so on. Hardy has described a natural environment; a wooded area during the wintertime. His word choice allows him to "say alot in a little space" (which is something I'm sure many of us aspire to do).

Word selection is important. Looking at Hardy's poem this is evermore evident. He chooses words which sound similar, look similar, rhyme and reason and are aesthetically pleasing (tangled, strings, broken, twigs, sharp). Combining these words in the poem create a "feeling" and carry a message through the work. All of those word descriptions are somewhat harsh, violent, aggressive - this adds to the darkness and "death-like" feel to the poem.

He uses the word "fervourless" to describe and contrast two things in one feeling:

And every spirit upon earth

Seemed fervourless as I

This selection occurs in the first stanza. The mood is dim, there is a feeling of vacancy and weariness. By using the word "fervourless" Hardy is implying that the narrator is alive, awakened, and deep in-thought. This word contrasts with the description of his environment. He is tired from the winter, the earth is weary and worn, there is a feeling of desolate darkness and death. Although this word identifies what seems to be an opposite feeling to the narrators experience, it validates his intense feelings while acting as a vehicle which moves the poem forward into further exploring this newfound awareness.

"The weakening eye of the day" represents the sun-setting and the day coming to a close. This occurs in the first stanza which is a clever way to further add feeling to the poem. "The Darkling Thrush" really means "The bird in the night" (or something like that), and the bird is only introduced near the end of the poem which means as each stanza moves forward, the sun continues to set until the bird emerges once darkness falls.

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky

Like strings of broken lyres

Here, Hardy illuminates the mood by comparing the environment and the narrator. The narrator feels broken as does the land which is desolate and bare. This is shown by the representation of a "lyre" which is worn-out and run-down, whose strings are broken. This creates the image of being tangled, unwoven, deshevled, and so on. It is further complimentry to the poem because the "lyre" would be played by a human, and the strings which are broken is comparable to the narrator who feels broken himself.

(I am in awe of the complexities of word choice. It is an art, a science, and a creation- but really only as good as its placement) ... *thinking...

Continuing with Hardy...

To identify the cold, unwelcoming and unfriendly environment Hardy describes this bleakness with literary metaphor.

The land's sharp features seemed to be

The Century's corpse outleant,

His crypt the cloudy canopy,

The wind his death-lament.

The "land's sharp features" are in reference to human features as he carries this idea forward with the word "corpse". Pathetic Fallacy is seen here as he unifies man and nature (similar to stanza one with "broken lyre"). "His crypt the cloudy canopy" might refer to (the human conscious?) acting as a reference to the human brain. The cloudy canopy could also refer to confusion or intense thoughts- this character's mind might be "lost in a fog" so-to-speak. This carries forward the theme of the relationship between man and nature as the canopy also reflects the clouds and the sky.

Irritation and frustration is immediately evident when the bird emerges, singing in the night. The narrator is not impressed. The word "beruffled" highlights his annoyance with the little bird. The bird is ignorant to the "shrunkenness" and "desolateness" below and continues to sing. This is a point where the stream of consciousness which is evident throughout the poem becomes evermore clear.

The play between external and internal evaluations is constant but more evident at this point in the poetry. As the little bird sings, the internal dialogue of the narrator processes this in accordance with his own personal thoughts and feelings. He is interpreting the bird. This creates a level of irony (because it's a bird) and because the bird is fully ignorant to the intensity below and the desruption his presence is causing- however, the narrator takes the birds' presence as a sign; a type of "escapisim" or "enlightenment" from his gloom and suffering.

This part of the poem carries a message. The audience can interpret the hostile, dark, desolate feel as "depression" because of such factors as: weariness, age, the time of season, and determine that the mood is quite intense because the narrator is feeling intense. The bird's presence highlights for the narrator, a brief irritance as well as an escape from his internal struggle.

Reading this part of the poem creates an awareness for the audience ( for me, personally) because I see someone struggling with his internal emotions, and the contrast which is set by the bird, fully ignorant to this...but I interpret this message to be "things are not always as bad as they seem" - the bird is a sign of winter coming to an end and of springtime on it's way, the bird is a sign (that ignorance is bliss?) and that life if forward-moving and each of us will have to continuously adapt to change.

Comments by Lester Bangs

On popularity:

You'll meet them all again on your long journey to the middle.

On The Music of America:

Here's a theory for you to disregard completely: Music, true music, it chooses you...from the vast, scenic bridges of your brain and angelic choirs...it's a place apart from the lap of America.

On real Buffoons:

The Doors by Jim Morrison? He's a drunken buffoon posing as a poet- give me the Guess Who- they have the courage to be drunken buffoons which makes them poetic.

On accomplishments:

The Letter by The Box Tops, it takes them one minute and fifty-eight seconds, less than two minutes to accomplish what takes Jethro Tull hours to Not accomplish.

On Rock Journalism:

It's an industry of cool...what passes for rock these days, silence is more compelling.

Quotes by Lester Bangs as represented by director Cameron Crowe in his motion picture
Almost Famous (bootleg cut)

END OF THE CENTURY

The Victorian era was a period of social, political, and ecconomic change. Some of the key Victorian poets during this time were, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Browning.

Change occurred with the end of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901)[I] which meant a sense of loss and unrest for the Victorians. From this change, focus was placed on “sensibility” and “rigidity” which inspired “movement” in poetry. These sensual and emotive movements included a focus on aesthetics and decadance which suggested that poetry should convey sensual pleasure as opposed to a centralized focus on moral messages and meanings. “Aestheticism” was a concept with the intent to capture essence and beauty. This meant a heightened focus on colour, words, music- anything visually or sensually enhancing, inspiring, or beautiful.

Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats were men who found this concept enlightening.

Oscar Wilde was a playwrite, novelist, and poet who was convicted of “indecency” because he was a homosexual.

After Wilde was released from prison in 1897[II] he wrote a famous poem, perhaps a reflection of his state of mind, called The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

The following are specific stanza’s from The Ballad of Reading Gaol which I find are very different from his rich, aesthetic-style of writing (theatre, comedy, fairy-tales) and demonstrates his (what I would think would be a “darker state of mind”) as opposed to his previous comedic and “art is life” style of writing.

He walked amongst the Trial Men
In a suit of shabby grey;A cricket cap was on his head,
And his step seemed light and gay;
But I never saw a man who looked
So wistfully at the day.

Here, I picture a man walking in-line with other men, wearing a coveralls and reflecting on his life, thinking about his past, thinking about himself…

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blueWhich prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that wentWith sails of silver by.

“Tent of Blue” creates a visual sky within the words. There is a slow-motion feeling to this walk, like they are walking toward their fate, anticipating the inevitable…

I walked, with other souls in pain,
Within another ring,
And was wondering if the man had done
A great or little thing,
When a voice behind me whispered low,'THAT FELLOW'S GOT TO SWING.'

The second line insinuates he is observing a man walking toward his fate, he’s observing his behaviour, wondering what the man is contemplating. He is wondering what kind of crime this individual had committed. The implication of “little” leads me to wonder what constitutes a small crime, or an insignificant crime- it also leads me to belive that he himself realizes the systems injustice and that he considers his institutional commitment as unjust. That he is aware of his crime being a “little thing”…

Dear Christ! the very prison walls
Suddenly seemed to reel,
And the sky above my head became
Like a casque of scorching steel;
And, though I was a soul in pain,
My pain I could not feel.

At this point I feel something dramatic has happened. There is a change of pace. I feel he’s been taken a different direction, physically put somewhere or he’s back inside the prison walls. He was somber, curious, and reflective when he was outside- now he’s frantic and panicky- like he’s been led inside…

I only knew what hunted thought
Quickened his step, and why
He looked upon the garish day
With such a wistful eye;The man had killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die.

He realizes this man was looking at the day unlike many would contemplate the day- he was looking at like it was his last day.

This poem is about the death chamber and is haunting and disturbing. Much of the poem describes the events leading up to the prisoner’s death. Near the end he talks about man-made law and the idea harsh realities of the institution…

I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,A year whose days are long.

But this I know, that every Law
That men have made for Man,
Since first Man took his brother's life,
And the sad world began,But straws the wheat and saves the chaff
With a most evil fan.

This too I know - and wise it were
If each could know the same -That every prison that men build
Is built with bricks of shame,
And bound with bars lest Christ should see
How men their brothers maim.

Here he describes the bitter realities of prison. The weak become weaker, the tough become tougher- all of them becoming “harder” people. The conditions of the jail – poor diet and poor chambers- the violence and inhumanity. “And all but lust” – perhaps this is insinuating (forced) homosexual experiences and assault.

For they starve the little frightened child
Till it weeps both night and day:
And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool,
And gibe the old and grey,
And some grow mad, and all grow bad,
And none a word may say.

Each narrow cell in which we dwell
Is a foul and dark latrine,
And the fetid breath of living Death
Chokes up each grated screen,
And all, but Lust, is turned to dust
In Humanity's machine.

The brackish water that we drink
Creeps with a loathsome slime,
And the bitter bread they weigh in scales
Is full of chalk and lime,
And Sleep will not lie down, but walks
Wild-eyed, and cries to Time.

"Wild-eyed" implies Wilde himself, looking wild-eyed like the many men who endured the same pain and circumstance.



[I] Note from lecture 2/28/05
[II] http://en.wikipedia.org