Analysis of the Poem: the Darkling Thrush
The Darkling Thrush
Paraphrase and analyze the poem:
Speaker: The speaker in the first two stanzas is portrayed as pessimistic and dark, but this changed in the two last stanzas. In any case, the speaker is conveyed to have strong feelings for nature.
Form: Rhyming scheme is clearly visible giving to poem a rhythm. The 3rd stanza’s rhyming scheme seems to have been modified, if not a little disturbed having a not as good phonetic ending at the end of each stanza conveying the speaker’s disturbance and surprise at the appearance of the thrush.
Imagery:
L.1 the coppice became a gate conveying that it’s not in its natural state, humans could have modified it.
L2: “When Frost was spectre-grey” a spectre/ghost is something dangerous, menacing, conveying Frost is dangerous, and cold is dangerous, deadly. The Frost being as cold as a ghost.
L2-3: Frost and Winter with capital letters, this personifies them. Cold, winter, death theme introduced. They will be the two “main characters “of the poem.
L3: “Winter’s dregs” winters residue, conveys the snow.
L3-4: “Winter 's dregs made desolate, The weakening eye of day” The snow is taking over the day, dark over light. “Eye of day” conveys the sun symbolizing light, happiness, warmth, is being taken over by “Winter’s dreg’s” darkness, snow, cold.
L5-6: “The tangled bine-stems scored the sky, like strings of broken lyres” this simile compares plants that are reaching for the sky, like broken lyres, lyres are instruments symbolizing usually illusion, and mostly the instruments of the gods. Lyres are therefor in the sky with the gods, and the plants are trying to do the same, but will never reach it “Broken Lyres” or broken “illusions”. This simile conveys somehow the sky in contrast to earth, heaven, and hell that plants are trying to flee “score the sky”.
L7-8: “And all mankind that haunted nigh” all the men that were hunting close by, “Had sought their household fires” had gone back to their house by the fire
Paraphrase and analyze the poem:
Speaker: The speaker in the first two stanzas is portrayed as pessimistic and dark, but this changed in the two last stanzas. In any case, the speaker is conveyed to have strong feelings for nature.
Form: Rhyming scheme is clearly visible giving to poem a rhythm. The 3rd stanza’s rhyming scheme seems to have been modified, if not a little disturbed having a not as good phonetic ending at the end of each stanza conveying the speaker’s disturbance and surprise at the appearance of the thrush.
Imagery:
L.1 the coppice became a gate conveying that it’s not in its natural state, humans could have modified it.
L2: “When Frost was spectre-grey” a spectre/ghost is something dangerous, menacing, conveying Frost is dangerous, and cold is dangerous, deadly. The Frost being as cold as a ghost.
L2-3: Frost and Winter with capital letters, this personifies them. Cold, winter, death theme introduced. They will be the two “main characters “of the poem.
L3: “Winter’s dregs” winters residue, conveys the snow.
L3-4: “Winter 's dregs made desolate, The weakening eye of day” The snow is taking over the day, dark over light. “Eye of day” conveys the sun symbolizing light, happiness, warmth, is being taken over by “Winter’s dreg’s” darkness, snow, cold.
L5-6: “The tangled bine-stems scored the sky, like strings of broken lyres” this simile compares plants that are reaching for the sky, like broken lyres, lyres are instruments symbolizing usually illusion, and mostly the instruments of the gods. Lyres are therefor in the sky with the gods, and the plants are trying to do the same, but will never reach it “Broken Lyres” or broken “illusions”. This simile conveys somehow the sky in contrast to earth, heaven, and hell that plants are trying to flee “score the sky”.
L7-8: “And all mankind that haunted nigh” all the men that were hunting close by, “Had sought their household fires” had gone back to their house by the fire