The Darkling Thrush is a poem by Thomas Hardy, first published at the end of December 1900. On a frozen winter evening, the poet looks at a bleak landscape that seems to him the corpse of the dying century, until an old thrush bursts into joyful song. It is one of Hardy's most famous poems.
The poem
In four stanzas of eight lines, the poet leans on a gate at dusk and sees only frost, grey light and tangled bushes. Everyone else seems to have gone indoors.
Suddenly a frail old thrush begins to sing with full-hearted joy. The poet finds no reason for such happiness and wonders whether the bird knows a hope he cannot see.
The end of a century
The poem was dated 31 December 1900, the last day of the nineteenth century. It was first printed in The Graphic, a London magazine, under the title By the Century's Deathbed.
The landscape is described as the century's corpse, with the sky as its crypt and the wind as its death-lament.
Hope and doubt
Many readers see in the poem Hardy's typical pessimism, softened by an uncertain hope.
It was collected in Poems of the Past and the Present, published at the end of 1901.
Anecdotes
Darkling
The old word darkling means in the dark. Hardy borrows it from earlier poets, including Keats, who used it in his Ode to a Nightingale.
A poet at sixty
Hardy was sixty when he wrote the poem. He had published only poetry for several years, after giving up the novel.
Frequently asked questions
When was The Darkling Thrush written?
At the very end of 1900.
What does the thrush do?
It sings joyfully in a bleak winter landscape.
What does darkling mean?
In the dark.