How does hardy suggest his own spiritual state by images of darkness and decay in this poem?
The Darkling Thrush was written and set at the turn of century, in the depths of the harsh British winter, “when Frost was spectre-gray”. It conveys Hardy’s dismay at the rapid industrialisation of Britain, which he saw as ruining the rural landscape, corrupting the “ancient pulse of germ and birth” at the very heart of nature.
The poem is written in first person, and we may presume that Hardy is the speaker. Hardy uses first person in an attempt to emphasise that his musings on the destruction of the countryside could be shared by all; he makes the poem at once universal and also personal. The use of first person helps the reader to really share Hardy’s experience and witness his true emotions.
The only other character within the poem is the “aged thrush” which appears mid poem to break up the miserable description of the desolate night. The thrush signals a change in the poem to a lighter tone and it is interjected straight into Hardy (and the reader)’s thought pattern with “at once”, changing the structure of the poem. The use of the thrush in the title shows that the poem is more centred, despite its gloomy beginning, on the hope that the thrush brings with his “full hearted evensong” than the forbearing darkness Hardy describes at the start of the poem. It is interesting that Hardy chose a thrush, a common bird, to be his bringer of “joy illimited”, as opposed to the more splendid birds of Keats and other romantic writers. The use of “Darkling” to describe the bird also draws a comparison with Keats, as it’s only other use in the poet’s “Nightingale”. It is possible that Hardy invoked the poem in order to show the total contrast between the two, whilst Keats’ nightingale is beautiful in a time of great hope, inspiring the poet, the “blast-beruffled”, “frail” “aged” thrush is as unlikely a bringer of hope as the nightingale is an obvious one. The use of the thrush shows that Hardy is so down-trodden in this poem, that the smallest, unlikely glimmers of hope are to him illuminating, and reflect and illuminate the “land’s sharp features”. "Evensong" means a song sung in the evening, significant here both for an "aged" bird and because it is the last day of a century. The image of the bird "choosing" to "fling his soul / Upon the growing gloom" suggests both hope and desperation, almost invoking the image of suicide, or one last action before death and this resonates with the speaker's own emotions.
