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broken lyre/harp, showing the barrenness and inability to produce life and music. In
Stanza 2, metaphors are used to compare the landscape to a corpse and the darkening
sky to a tomb, which further accentuates the spooky mood. The rich visual, auditory
and tactile imagery in the poem appeals to readers’ sense of sight, hearing and touch,
creating a vivid picture of the haunted countryside in a darkening dusk, which helps to
present the theme of death and ending.
Example 7: Diction/Word Choice/Use of Language
Comment on diction of Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush” and discuss the effects
the use of language creates.
Analysis:
In the poem “The Darkling Thrush”, archaic language (e.g. coppice [group of trees],
spectre [ghost], darkling [in the dark], lyre [harp], crypt [tomb], illimited [free from
limitations], nigh [near]) and some unusual combinations of words (e.g. death-lament”
and “outleant”) can be identified in various places. The use of archaism reflects the
poet’s Keatsian lyrical style and the Romantic literary tradition he belongs to.
In addition to the use of archaism, the poet uses a lot of single adjectives before nouns.
A lot of negative adjectives (e.g. desolate, weakening, tangled, broken, haunted, cloudy,
shrunken, hard, dry and fervourless) are used in Stanzas 1 and 2 to express the dark
feelings and dejected mood of the speaker. In contrast, positive adjectives (e.g.
full-hearted, illimited, growing, ecstatic, happy, blessed) and feelings words (e.g. joy,
Hope) are used in Stanzas 3 and 4 to show the uplifted spirit of the speaker after
listening to the joyful singing of the aged thrush.
It is also worth noting that words with religious meanings (e.g. evensong, soul,
carolings, blessed) are often used in the description of the bird. This religious
association is accentuated with the capitalisation of the word “Hope” towards the end
of the poem. The thrush seems to symbolise a spiritual force in nature and represent a
harbinger of hope.
