The Darkling Thrush

Question 1

What does sardonic mean?

Answer 1

The belief that humanity is insincere.

Question 2

What was The Darkling Thrush originally called?

Answer 2

By the Century’s Deathbed

Question 3

What is a thrush?

Answer 3

A thrush is a songbird that has a brown back, spotted breasts, and loud song.

Question 4

What does the date of publishing have to do with the poem?

Answer 4

The poem was published on the 29th of December 1900 in The Graphic and the weather reflects itself in the poem, as the poem is set on a cold and dreary winter evening.

Question 5

What is the mood of the poem?

Answer 5

The poem has a very pessimistic, desolate mood.

Question 6

Critical appreciation of the poem

Answer 6

A lyrical poem, musical in execution, highly metaphorical

Question 7

What does darkling mean?

Answer 7

A poetic way of saying growing dark or characterized by darkness.

Question 8

What does coppice gate mean?

Answer 8

“Coppice gate” refers to a gate that guards a woodland area where trees are periodically cut back to ground level.

Question 9

What does dregs mean?

Answer 9

“Dregs” means remnants, referring to the turn of the century.

Question 10

What does lyre mean?

Answer 10

The lyre is a stringed instrument that was displayed frequently in ancient Greek (mostly with Apollo, the Greek God of music) mythology.

Question 11

What does nigh mean?

Answer 11

Nigh means nearby.

Question 12

What does specter mean?

Answer 12

Spectre is a ghostly figure, symbolic of something negative, eery, frightening, and close to death.

Question 13

What is frost symbolic of?

Answer 13

Frost, when it falls on low-lying shrubs, it often damages the stem as well as the leaves, occasionally killing the plants.

Question 14

What does Thomas Hardy convey in the first stanza?

Answer 14

Hardy conveys a somber, desolate environment filled with despondency.

Question 15

What are the literary devices used in the first stanza?

Answer 15

Frost and Winter are capitalized to symbolize that Hardy meant to personify both of them - elements adding to the sense of loneliness and despondency.

Question 16

What do the tangled bine-stems look like?

Answer 16

The creepers and climbers that have to rely on others to survive, are now dead, resembling strings of broken lyres.

Question 17

What is the importance of comparing tangled bine-stems to broken strings?

Answer 17

Hardy wishes to convey that there is not only a lack of life, but also a lack of music. This could also be a reference to the breaking down of Western Civilization as a whole.

Question 18

What do the last two lines of the first stanza convey?

Answer 18

The people around, do not seem to be bothered about the bleak and desolate situation as seen around them.

Question 19

Why do the people go back to look after their household fires?

Answer 19

It conveys the selfishness that mankind has - looking to guard what is his and keeping it for himself.

Question 20

What does fervourless mean?

Answer 20

Fervour is associated with a lot of energy, so fervourless denotes a lack of energy.

Question 21

What do the first two lines of the second stanza convey?

Answer 21

Hardy mentions that the sharp features of the land can be likened to the corpse of the previous century, leaning out.

Question 22

What do the clouds in the second stanza signify?

Answer 22

The clouds form a sort of canopy - a tomb underneath a church(crypt).

Question 23

What is the role of the wind?

Answer 23

The wind sings a mournful song, lamenting over the demise of the Century.

Question 24

What does “the ancient pulse…shrunken hard and dry” mean?

Answer 24

Hardy conveys disinterest and lethargy in procreating and everyone around him also seems to be as fervourless as him.

Question 25

What is the personification in the second stanza?

Answer 25

The Century has been personified and its "corpse" is outleant.

Question 26

What does the theme of death seem to convey in the first two stanzas?

Answer 26

The theme of death seems to convey the turn of the century, the literal death of an era. But it may also convey Hardy's opinion that Western Civilization has failed as a whole - rumored to be a reference to the transition from rural towns to urban cities or a reference to rapid industrialization or a reference to Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

Question 27

What is the significance of the words "germ and birth"?

Answer 27

Germination is how plants procreate and birth is how humans procreate - this allows Hardy to interlink the death and decay of both sides of the world.

Question 28

What does illimited mean?

Answer 28

Illimited means unlimited

Question 29

What is the first indication of the presence of the bird?

Answer 29

"At once a voice arose..." - the sound of the bird was the first indication of its presence

Question 30

Describe the thrush

Answer 30

The thrush was an aged bird - frail, gaunt, and small. Its feathers were disturbed by the wind

Question 31

What does beruffled plume mean?

Answer 31

It refers to the feathers of the bird that are in a mess because of the cold wind, also referring to the bleak atmosphere.

Question 32

What is the main purpose of the third stanza?

Answer 32

The third stanza provides sharp contrast to the previous two stanzas since the thrush seems to convey a lot of hope in the midst of a very bleak atmosphere.

Question 33

Why a thrush and not any other bird?

Answer 33

Credit goes to Thomas Hardy for making sure that the bird that provides the neighborhood with hope is a bird that fits in with the background - a frail, gaunt small thrush that has a positive attitude towards life despite the circumstances it has found itself in.

Question 34

How does the last stanza begin?

Answer 34

The poet mentions that there is little to no cause for the thrush to sing carols - a reference to religion.

Question 35

What is it about the thrush's caroling that surprises Hardy?

Answer 35

Hardy mentions that the thrush is caroling with ecstatic sound - a sharp contrast to the surroundings.

Question 36

Why is Hardy perplexed by the caroling of the bird?

Answer 36

Hardy believes that the bird has a hope that he is unable to interpret because it knows something that he does not.

Question 37

What could the caroling signify in the context of the turn of the Century?

Answer 37

It may be a form of thanksgiving that the bird expresses by being grateful for all the good things that happened in the century gone by.