The “Darkling Thrush” creates a cold, ghostly, wintery night atmosphere. It is as if the intent of the author was to use nature to paint a picture of doom and gloom. I can imagine the narrator standing by an old building or fence as he gazes at his surroundings. Like every place in winter months, the ground is hard and frozen. The wind, or hawk as we call it, is blowing strong and it stings the skin upon contact. According to the author, the place was very isolated, like a ghost town. The author’s descriptions of his surroundings would go well in some type of horror movie.
I think many of us can recall one of those days walking around campus during the wintery months and seeing no one in sight. Then, all of a sudden “at once a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead” (Hardy 17-18). Meaning, out of nowhere you can hear people talking. They may be walking towards you in passing. One thing for sure, there is no cause to be singing and playing around outside because it is too cold. Every sensible person is inside trying his or her best to keep warm, “And all mankind that haunted nigh had sought their household fires” (Hardy 7-8). However, I must also say that someone will always be outside doing something like the individual that was so full of joy. Many people enjoy the cold wintery months just as much as the summer ones. This was definitely the case with the person singing at the top of his lungs. Then, there is also the possibility that he was heading to his destination and was singing to take his mind off the cold, or is just the wind be used by the author metaphorically?
Reggie,
ReplyDeleteSome interesting speculation on this poem, and I like the way you quote and comment on particular lines. I think you get off course, though, when you mistake the voice for a person's; it is a bird's (it belongs to a thrush). Without that central fact, all the other interpretive comments just veer away from being correct.