On "The Darkling Thrush" by Thomas Hardy

etext of the poem

The argument of the poem appears to suggest that there is a contrast between the gloomy landscape and the thrush, representing hope. But a closer look reveals that the structure of the text is not that straightforward. For how is the thrush presented? Set on "bleak twigs", it is "aged", "frail, gaunt, and small", and has "blast-beruffled plume". In other words, the thrush, in its appearance, matches the "spectre-gray" landscape perfectly. What made us suppose, then, that it is to be interpreted as a harbinger of hope? That, as stated, it is singing of "joy illimited", resulting in "carolings" and "his happy good-night air". Notice, however, that these positive elements are more conceptual and less visualizable than the actual appearance of the thrush. In other words, while negativity in this poem is presented by concrete elements; positivity is merely related by more conceptual ones. Their absence from the "world" of the text makes the notion of a proper contrast highly problematic, while, at the same time, it reflects the notions expressed in the text itself: for it is of what is missing from the visual field that we remain "unaware".