The Darkling Thrush By: Thomas Hardy

1. The Darkling ThrushBy: Thomas Hardy Donna Reed English IV Honors- 3rd Period Mrs. Johnson

2. Author Biography Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, England on June 2, 1840. In 1874 Hardy married his first wife Emma Gifford. Emma, died in 1912. Although their marriage had not been happy, Hardy grieved at her sudden death. In 1914, he married Florence Dugale. As a novelist he is best known for his work set in the semi-fictionalized county of Wessex including, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. He was also an accomplished poet. Hardy died on January 11, 1928. His ashes are in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey and his heart is buried in Stinsford with his first wife, Emma Gifford Hardy.

3. Historical Background • Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) wrote "The Darkling Thrush" on 31st December 1899. It was first published in "Graphic" with the subtitle "By the Century's Deathbed," and was later published in "The London Times" on New Year's Day 1901. • The poem could be understood as symbolically marking the end of a century and the beginning of a new one. It must be remembered that Queen Victoria died on 22nd January 1901 thus marking the end of a great era, 'The Victorian Age' in English history, literature and culture.

4. Summary of The Darkling Thrush When the frost was ghostly gray and the depressing winter landscape made the setting sun seem lonely and abandoned, the speaker leaned on a gate. Twining plants, rising high, were silhouetted against the sky like the strings of broken lyres. All the people who lived nearby were inside their homes, gathered around their household fires. The countryside looked like a corpse. The cloudy sky was the roof of the corpse's crypt, the speaker says, and the wind its song of death. The cycle of birth and rebirth seemed to have shrunken and dried up, like the spirit of the speaker. But then he heard the joyful song of a bird, a frail old thrush, coming from scrawny branches overhead. The song was a joyous outpouring against the evening gloom. The dreary landscape gave the bird (thrush) no reason to sing with such overflowing happiness. The speaker wondered where the bird got this joy from and if it was of some hope of which he was unaware.

6. Work Cited • http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/110 • http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/thomas-hardy • http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-did-thomas-hardy-wrote-his-poem-tha-darkling-118361