Analysis of The Darkling Thrush
Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)
I leant upon a coppice gate,
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to me
The Century's corpse outleant,
Its crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind its death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervorless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead,
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited.
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small,
With blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew,
And I was unaware.
Scheme | ABXBCDCD EAEXFCFC XXCAXGXG DHDHIJIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11001011 111101 01011100 0100111 01011101 111101 01111101 111110 01110111 010011 11010100 011101 01011101 110101 010010011 1111 11010101 011101 001101 111 1111101 1111 11011111 010101 110111 110101 110101001 011101 11111101 110111 111111 01101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 956 |
Words | 162 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 190 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 204 Views
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