52 Poems, Week 1: The Darkling Thrush (Thomas Hardy)
01/04/2018
I suppose I read this poem a dozen times or so when I encountered it in one of my college textbooks. It was either second-semester English, where we used the old favorite Sound and Sense anthology, which I still have, or in a higher-level course in Victorian poetry, where we used a lime-green paperback called something like Victorian Poetry: Clough to Kipling. I have just been surprised to find that I still have it, too--I thought it had fallen apart long ago. And it is the one that contains the poem. Both courses were taught by a great instructor, Dr. Eugene Williamson of the University of Alabama.
As many times as I've read the poem, I never knew what a "coppice gate" was. I didn't think it mattered--I just assumed that whatever sort of gate was, the image of any gate would serve the purpose, and so I never bothered to find out. Just now I looked it up, and learned that a coppice is "An area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth and provide firewood or timber." That was slightly surprising, as I had supposed that a coppice gate was a particular style of gate, not the gate to a coppice.
I was more inconveniently puzzled by "outleant", which made for a sort of bump in the reading. Clearly it was supposed to be a visual description, but I couldn't make it work. One would suppose it to mean "leaning out," but that doesn't make a lot of sense in the context. Now, thanks to the Thomas Hardy Society (link is to a PDF), that's cleared up: it means "stretched out, one of Hardy’s own compounds."
I've always thought of it as a New Year's poem.
*
I leant upon a coppice gateWhen Frost was spectre-grey,And Winter's dregs made desolateThe weakening eye of day.The tangled bine-stems scored the skyLike strings of broken lyres,And all mankind that haunted nighHad sought their household fires.The land's sharp features seemed to beThe Century's corpse outleant,His crypt the cloudy canopy,The wind his death-lament.The ancient pulse of germ and birthWas shrunken hard and dry,And every spirit upon earthSeemed fervourless as I.At once a voice arose amongThe bleak twigs overheadIn a full-hearted evensongOf joy illimited;An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,In blast-beruffled plume,Had chosen thus to fling his soulUpon the growing gloom.So little cause for carolingsOf such ecstatic soundWas written on terrestrial thingsAfar or nigh around,That I could think there trembled throughHis happy good-night airSome blessed Hope, whereof he knewAnd I was unaware.
*
I often find those last two lines running through my head.
Hardy was a very good poet.
Posted by: grumpy | 01/04/2018 at 12:58 PM
This is a lovely poem, but I never feel so morose about a winter landscape. Or at least, it isn't at odds with my mood. I feel peaceful and at home there.
I do love it, however, when I see a bright red cardinal sitting in the bare branches.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/04/2018 at 02:25 PM
Ah, haven't read that in ages, but it's a good one!
Posted by: Rob G | 01/04/2018 at 02:55 PM
I never read much of Hardy's poetry beyond what was in that Victorian text. There's a lot of it and I'm sure there are many gems in there.
I don't usually find a winter landscape depressing, either. I would probably be more likely to if I lived in a place with long, cold, dark winters.
Posted by: Mac | 01/04/2018 at 05:03 PM
It was Sound and Sense that really opened the door to poetry for me. I know that we had studied some of those poems in high school, but I can't remember that. One night while I was doing my homework from S&S for my Freshman English class, I realized that I was really enjoying doing the work, and that I looked forward to the discussion in class the next day.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/04/2018 at 06:06 PM
It's a great anthology. Still in use, I think. Seems like we discussed it here some time ago.
Posted by: Mac | 01/04/2018 at 10:39 PM
I once read a book on Biblical hermeneutics in which the author said that Bible students should shelve all their commentaries and scholarly works and not even look at one until they had read Sound and Sense. Good advice.
Posted by: Rob G | 01/05/2018 at 05:26 AM
Very good.
Posted by: Mac | 01/05/2018 at 07:38 AM
I suppose it is a testament to the power of poems and my own subconscious mind that though I have largely ignored poetry since completing my degree in English I recognize this poem as one I had read way back then. Apparently Hardy could do anything.
Posted by: Stu | 01/05/2018 at 11:19 AM
I don't usually find a winter landscape depressing, either. I would probably be more likely to if I lived in a place with long, cold, dark winters.
I didn't either until I made the move from California to Boston, Mass., where I spent nine of those long winters. Take it away, Emily D.:
There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses ...
Posted by: Marianne | 01/05/2018 at 12:25 PM
Now that's interesting because there is a certain slant of light on winter afternoons that I find absolutely numinous.
Probably not the same slant.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/05/2018 at 12:41 PM
Surely it would depend a lot on what your mood is starting out. Also it may not be the same for southerners, even where there's an actual winter.
Posted by: Mac | 01/05/2018 at 02:39 PM
That's true. The sun is in a different position in the sky in the north.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/05/2018 at 02:52 PM
The thing is that when the sun is low on the horizon in the morning or evening, the bare trees all turn to gold.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/05/2018 at 02:54 PM
Yes, that's one phenomenon. :-)
Posted by: Mac | 01/05/2018 at 04:19 PM
So, what's another one?
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/05/2018 at 09:00 PM
Just saying that it can look many different ways and speak to or evoke many different moods. The one you describe is indeed beautiful but one I haven't seen for many years.
Posted by: Mac | 01/05/2018 at 10:42 PM
I know what you were saying. I was just windering if there was something else you were thinking of. ;-)
AMDG
Posted by: Janet Cupo | 01/06/2018 at 06:05 AM
No, I didn't have anything in particular in mind, just that it's so various. Or can be. Winter here is hardly every anything but simply dull. You would never bring "cathedral tunes" into any discussion of it.
Posted by: Mac | 01/06/2018 at 09:51 AM
"I once read a book on Biblical hermeneutics in which the author said that Bible students should shelve all their commentaries and scholarly works and not even look at one until they had read Sound and Sense. Good advice." That is why I am such a strong proponent of a liberal education for seminarians.
My favorite winters have been spent in Minnesota. I like the slant of the sun and the crispness. I'm originally from Oklahoma, so I am a transplant to the north.
Posted by: Robert Gotcher | 01/06/2018 at 07:56 PM
I used to think I would like to live in some place like Minnesota at least for one year, to see what a really serious winter would be like. I did live in Denver one winter and that was pretty shocking to me, and it's relatively mild compared to Minnesota (I think). Now that I'm in my late 60s I'm not so sure. Even mild cold seems colder. This is the age when retirees move down here from anywhere north of Kentucky or so.
Posted by: Mac | 01/07/2018 at 12:15 AM
This time of year I wish I could work in san francisco.
Posted by: Very Grumpy | 01/07/2018 at 10:19 AM
One January when I was living in Boston, I had to spend three days in Los Angeles for my job. The contrast was unreal, and for the first time in my life, L.A. looked beautiful to me.
Posted by: Marianne | 01/07/2018 at 12:24 PM
Every time I've been to California I've understood why Californians tend to be nature worshippers.
Posted by: Mac | 01/07/2018 at 04:41 PM
Every time I see the word, "California" I want to get on a plane.
Not working is going to be hard on my California addiction.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/07/2018 at 05:36 PM
It helps to remind yourself that the government of California officially hates you.
Posted by: Mac | 01/07/2018 at 07:56 PM
But the ocean loves me, and the government leaves me alone.
The government of Alabama on the other hand gave me a $216.50 ticket.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/07/2018 at 08:07 PM
You must have been doing something wrong.
Posted by: Mac | 01/07/2018 at 10:33 PM
Me?
Now that I think about it, it happened in Mississippi.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 01/08/2018 at 04:41 PM