Darkling Thrush

- About Winter

- thrush shows hope in darkness

- they know and sense something that the humans do not

- Heavy description of ghostly colours

- written at turn of the century 

- Written in cross-ryhme 

- symbolic of change

'coppice gate' = entering new century = new beginning = symbolic of change

'Frost was spectre-gray' = personification of Frost = Jack Frost (ghostly image) = something that is feared

'Winters dregs made desolate' = personification of winter

'weakening eye of day' = metaphorical for sun setting = end of day, now in darkness

'tangled bime-stems scored the sky' = hushed sound created by sibilance

- in summer turns into honey suckle - contrasting

'like strings of broken lyres' = simile = relates music to nature

'mankind that haunted nigh'

- haunting the day - contrast with pretty day

'household fires' =no one wants to come outside

'century's corpse' = image of death throughout

- end of century 

- compares land to corpse

'his crypt the cloudy canopy'

-metaphor 

- cloud like a crypt 

- alliteration 

'lament'

- express sorrow

'fervourless as I'

- doesn't have feeling

Contrasts lifeless landscape with joyful sound 

- focus on birdsong

'joy illimited' = unstoppable joy

'aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small'

- triad 

- joyful but weak creates contrast

- not pretty to see but stunning to hear

'fling his soul'

- shows his energy in all of this

'growing gloom' = alliteration and contrast

- thrush fighting the glow

there is something beyond material things that can bring us joy and hope

- the bird know this but we did not

'his happy'

- emphasises his importance by using a capital letter

'some blessed hope that Hope, whereof he knew and I was unaware'

- the bird knows better than Hardy

- capitilisation of hope highlights again its importance