“The Darkling Thrush” is a poem by the English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy. The poem describes a desolate world, which the poem’s speaker takes as cause for despair and hopelessness. However, a bird (the “thrush”) bursts onto the scene, singing a beautiful and hopeful song—so hopeful that the speaker wonders whether the bird knows something that the speaker doesn’t. Written in December 1900, the poem reflects on the end of the 19th century and the state of Western civilization. The desolation of the scene the speaker sees serves as an extended metaphor for the decay of Western civilization, while the thrush is a symbol for its possible rebirth through religious faith.
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The Full Text of “The Darkling Thrush”
1I leant upon a coppice gate
2 When Frost was spectre-grey,
3And Winter's dregs made desolate
4 The weakening eye of day.
5The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
6 Like strings of broken lyres,
7And all mankind that haunted nigh
8 Had sought their household fires.
9The land's sharp features seemed to be
10 The Century's corpse outleant,
11His crypt the cloudy canopy,
12 The wind his death-lament.
13The ancient pulse of germ and birth
14 Was shrunken hard and dry,
15And every spirit upon earth
16 Seemed fervourless as I.
17At once a voice arose among
18 The bleak twigs overhead
19In a full-hearted evensong
20 Of joy illimited;
21An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
22 In blast-beruffled plume,
23Had chosen thus to fling his soul
24 Upon the growing gloom.
25So little cause for carolings
26 Of such ecstatic sound
27Was written on terrestrial things
28 Afar or nigh around,
29That I could think there trembled through
30 His happy good-night air
31Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
32 And I was unaware.
The Full Text of “The Darkling Thrush”
1I leant upon a coppice gate
2 When Frost was spectre-grey,
3And Winter's dregs made desolate
4 The weakening eye of day.
5The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
6 Like strings of broken lyres,
7And all mankind that haunted nigh
8 Had sought their household fires.
9The land's sharp features seemed to be
10 The Century's corpse outleant,
11His crypt the cloudy canopy,
12 The wind his death-lament.
13The ancient pulse of germ and birth
14 Was shrunken hard and dry,
15And every spirit upon earth
16 Seemed fervourless as I.
17At once a voice arose among
18 The bleak twigs overhead
19In a full-hearted evensong
20 Of joy illimited;
21An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
22 In blast-beruffled plume,
23Had chosen thus to fling his soul
24 Upon the growing gloom.
25So little cause for carolings
26 Of such ecstatic sound
27Was written on terrestrial things
28 Afar or nigh around,
29That I could think there trembled through
30 His happy good-night air
31Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
32 And I was unaware.
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“The Darkling Thrush” Summary
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“The Darkling Thrush” Themes
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Nature and the Decline of Human Civilization
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Hope and Renewal
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Despair and Isolation
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Darkling Thrush”
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Lines 1-4
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day. -
Lines 5-8
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires. -
Lines 9-12
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament. -
Lines 13-16
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I. -
Lines 17-20
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited; -
Lines 21-24
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom. -
Lines 25-28
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around, -
Lines 29-32
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
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“The Darkling Thrush” Symbols
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Frost
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Eye of Day
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Lyre
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Fires
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Germ and Birth
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Hope
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Thrush
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“The Darkling Thrush” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Enjambment
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End-Stopped Line
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Caesura
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Consonance
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Personification
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Simile
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Metaphor
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Extended Metaphor
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“The Darkling Thrush” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Coppice
- Spectre-grey
- Dregs
- Bine-stems
- Scored
- Lyre
- Haunted
- Nigh
- Outleant
- Crypt
- Death-lament
- Pulse
- Germ
- Fervourless
- Evensong
- Illimited
- Gaunt
- Blast-beruffled
- Plume
- Fling
- Carolings
- Terrestrial
- Air
- Whereof
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Darkling Thrush”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Darkling Thrush” Speaker
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“The Darkling Thrush” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Darkling Thrush”
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More “The Darkling Thrush” Resources
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External Resources
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What is Evensong? — St. Thomas Church in New York City offers a brief definition and explanation of evensong.
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The Industrial Revolution — From the British Library, a discussion of the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution.
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Poem of the Week: The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy — Carol Rumens offers a detailed analysis of Hardy's poem in an article for the Guardian newspaper.
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"The Darkling Thrush" Read Aloud — Tim Gracyk reads "The Darkling Thrush" aloud.
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More About Thomas Hardy — A detailed biography of Thomas Hardy from the Poetry Foundation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Thomas Hardy
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