Thomas
Hardy is a detached observer of life and a typical product of the Victorian
spirit – ‘Fin-de-siècle’. As a poet Hardy’s vision of life is that of a
pessimist. Unlike Robert Browning, he finds no hope, no consolation in the
life-long tunnel of darkness. His none-too-happy views of life are actually
‘exploration of reality’, for he always strove to grapple with problems of
human character and conduct. His “Darkling Thrush” shows the contrast between
the desolation of the wintry scene and the joyous song of the aged thrush,
between affirmation in the world of Nature and the negation in the poet’s
heart. According to A. E. Housman, there is always a “satisfying flatness” in
Thomas Hardy’s poem.
Pessimism
arises from a clash of human instincts and ambition against the environment.
And since his own life has been a story of odds and upsets of financial
constraints and unrequited loves he usually turned to be pessimist. The harsh
realities of Industrial Revolution left a tremendous impact in the mind of the
poet. The life that Hardy saw around him was full of suffering and destruction-
for example the life of the Wessex labour with its grim poverty. He often wrote
about the human predicament in the universe rather than about the betterment or
happiness. His conception of life was essentially tragic. Life was no boon to
him, no happiness at all. He therefore announced “Happiness was but an occasional
episode in the general drama of pain.” (The Mayor of Casterbridge)
Darkling
Thrush begins with a typical Hardyan narrative opening. Winter is drawing to
its close and the scene around him is cheerless. People living nearby had retired indoors.
There was frost which was pale as ghost. The inclement weather of the winter still
prevailed and the sun has already set on the western horizon. The stems of the
bine trees have already reached the sky. Each and every member of the society
was in earnest quest of their domestic entertainments. The poet is leant upon
the gate. The sharp features of the landscape appeared to be the corpse or dead
body of the nineteenth century. The century was almost dying. The process of
birth and growth seemed to have stopped in the rigorous winter. The sky was
cloudy, a storm was blowing. Every living being felt gloom and depression. But
suddenly a song issued from the dark and decayed branches of the tree. It was
spontaneous and it comes from the inner most core of the heart. It was
excessively joyous and delightful. An old thrush that was lean, frail and weak
was singing to his heart’s content in the midst of enveloping darkness. His
plume was perturbed by the gust of wind. The poet finds the ray of hope in the
bird’s song. He hopes for the coming golden future.
Hardy’s thrush represents his pessimism in the
midst of optimism or reversal. It seems that Hardy is stranded between optimism
and pessimism, between hope and despair. The evening symbolizes left helpless,
despair, frustration, metal darkness and disillusionment. But the song of the
thrush symbolizes the spirit of hope, a hope for a world of beauty, a world
which is devoid of ugliness, the hope of the beginning of a new era or century
or Millennium. It represents the passing away of an old century and heralding
of a bright and hopeful new century.
In The Darkling Thrush, Hardy the
pessimist sings the glory of Hardy, the optimist. Although all was not right
with his world, yet all was not wrong, all was not dead. Only for a moment, the
pulse of the life seemed to stop but in the very next moment with all
spontaneity life spring up with all its “joy illimited”. Beneath the
wintry desolation there lies the eternal pulse of germ and birth. Behind the
death of the old century there is the birth of new century, behind death and
despair there is hope and life. From the very title of the poem it is clear
that the thrush is sitting in the dark in the encircling gloom just like Hardy
himself in “the long drip of human tears”.
Yet out of this gloom bursts a song of hope, out of the goodnight air trembles forth
an air of good morning – “if
winter comes can spring be far behind”.
Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush is
the basis of Hardy’s self-designated “evolutionary meliorism”. The poem ends with a note of optimism:
“Some blessed hope where
of he knew
And I was unaware”
~~~~~*~~~~~
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