The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
Hardy’s work – Naturalism, Wessex (countryside), pre-industrial England, nostalgia Role of destiny in everything Society of consumption, consumerism The industrialized were brought back to their human nature “Had chosen thus to fling his soul (<3) Upon the growing gloom” The Darkling Thrush BY THOMAS HARDY I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. dusk The tangled pine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires. All have returned home to warmth and love, but speaker is alone, leaning on a coppice-gate The land's sharp features seemed to be Rigor mortis The Century's corpse outleant, Century – Victorian Era Death is the starkest contrast to life His crypt the cloudy canopy, Crypt – enclosure, pit The wind his death-lament. The ancient pulse of germ and birth Was ...