The Thrush of Hardy and Frost - Essay Example

2. The Thrush of Hardy and Frost Through his use of metaphor and imagery, Hardy clearly outlines the idea of the death of the old with only a hint of the new thrown in at the last moment in his poem “The Darkling Thrush.” Although the poem seems to be very dark and forbidding, this darkened beginning contrasts sharply against the sound of hope at the end, transforming the poem into a promise for the future. The first half of the poem contains a great deal of dark imagery which suggests to the reader a sense of death or ending. From the beginning, the speaker reveals that he is so tired from his travels that he is now leaning on a gate before moving on and the scene he sees from this vantage point becomes the subject of the poem. The idea of weakness this conjures is reinforced by the deathlike imagery of spectre-grey Frost and “the weakening eye of day” (4). Rather than being carried away by the brilliant light of a beautiful sunset as one might expect a poet to be in this position, Hardy describes the evening as being stained by the ‘dregs’ of winter and the sky as being scarred and damaged by the skeletal limbs of leafless trees reaching into its depths. They remind him of the “strings of broken lyres” (6), revealing that there is no more room left in the man’s heart to consider the light and life of joy and art. “It is as if poetry itself is broken, music itself is out of tune. The very landscape has becomes the pinched face of a corpse withered in death” (Stallings, 2006). Rather than simply point out that most people have already gone home, Hardy describes them as if they were ghosts as they have “haunted nigh” (7), but are not disappeared, evaporated in the ending day. The prevalent mood of the first stanza is reinforced and deepened throughout the second stanza as Hardy seems to be introducing us to the scenes of a funeral for the old century that is just on its way out: “His crypt the cloudy canopy, / The wind his death-lament” (10-11). “When we read, ‘The ancient pulse of germ and birth,’ (12) what springs first to mind is the pulse of the heart, the rhythm of life. But ‘pulse’ also has an agricultural meaning – pods such as beans and peas – which would seem to refer to resurrection and new life, … but instead, we have a pulse ‘shrunken hard and dry’ (13)” (Stallings, 2006). Rather than illustrating the birth of life and creativity, Hardy suggests the birth of disease and corruption. As he talks about “every spirit upon earth / seemed fervourless as I” (14-15), Hardy completes this picture of death everywhere, with nothing left but listless spirits floating about a lifeless ground as the old century comes to a close. Just at this bleakest and darkest point of the entire 100 years that have gone before, Hardy’s speaker is startled by the voice of hope as it breaks the dismal sunset scenery. Although things are still bleak, this voice speaks “in a full-hearted evensong / Of joy illimited” (18-19). Stallings (2006) explains that the term ‘evensong’ was used to describe a song of celebration which was typically sung during the vespers service of an Anglican church. Thus, this statement doesn’t just suggest that a voice was singing joyfully, it also serves to suggest that at this darkest point in history, one must remember the importance of faith. It is soon revealed that the singer, a type of bird called a thrush particularly known for its beautiful song, is singing from his perch on a bare branch in a leafless, fruitless tree. He has no protection, no warmth, no food and no comfort on such a dismal evening. In addition, the bird is old, “frail, gaunt and small, / In blast-beruffled plume” (20-21). This description makes it clear that the bird has not lived a comfortable life nor is it certain that it will live long enough to see the first of the berries and leaves emerge in the spring, yet he throws all his energy into his joyful song. Surprised at this, the speaker uses the fourth stanza to explore what there might be in the surrounding environment to cause such celebration to burst forth, but can find nothing that would inspire the bird’s “happy good-night air” (29). It is in this unexplained joy that the speaker acknowledges the bird must have experienced “some blessed Hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware” (30-31). Although he does not leave the poem as an optimistic traveler again taking up the road before him, the speaker of Hardy’s poem acknowledges that there may be some hope for the future even though he is unable to see it from his present perspective. Robert Frost also uses the song of a thrush to convey a sense of hope in the darkness in his poem “Come In.” Written approximately four decades after Hardy’s poem, Frost places the sense of despair within the darkness of the forest itself as he also uses metaphor and imagery to convey a sense of the times. Like the speaker in Hardy’s poem, Frost’s speaker is standing outside in the dusk when he suddenly hears the sound of a thrush singing. Unlike the visible bird in the earlier poem, though, Frost’s bird is recognizable only by his beautiful song as it is “too dark in the woods for a bird / by sleight of wing / to better its perch for the night / though it could still sing” (5-8). In the third stanza, the speaker realizes that the bird is in a much darker place than where he is standing as the trees block the last light of the sun, but yet the bird still retains enough memory of the light to sing. This imagery extends to metaphor as the darkness of the forest is related to the darkness of death as the sunlight had already “died in the west” yet “lived for one song more” (10-11). As Frost considers whether or not he should come in to the darkness of death, he decides he is not yet ready. “But no, I was out for stars” (17), just as the thrush was not yet ready for sleep and bursts out in song instead. Thus, both poets use the imagery of nature, particularly the moving song of the thrush, to create a metaphor for the comparison of death and life, they each achieve a hopeful conclusion in entirely different ways. Although Hardy provides a suggestion of hope for the future, he does nothing to claim that this must take place as his speaker can find no reason for it in the environment and no reason to believe that the bird will survive until spring. The landscape is frigid, the people are spirits, the winter beauty has been turned into ghosts and even the sunset has lost its color to the cloudy sky. Throughout the entire piece, the only indication of hope is contained within the throat of that tiny bird and it is the tiny bird that remains the only one that understands what there is to hope for. However, that this tiny bird continues to have hope reassures the speaker that the future may still have something good in it. He cannot see it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist in some ghostly form. Frost’s speaker, on the other hand, recognizes that there is little hope for light in the darkness of the night, even less in the night-time forest, yet he is out seeking it anyway, having come out for the stars. The song of the thrush reminds him that even when the path is too dark to see, there remains some way for one living creature to reach out and touch the soul of another living creature in some way. Works Cited Frost, Robert. “Come In.” (1942). Hardy, Thomas. “The Darkling Thrush.” (December 31, 1900). Stallings, A.E. “The Darkling Thrush: A Centennial Appreciation.” ASide. (September 6, 2006). Read More