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.
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 be
The Century’s
corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind
his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken
hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless
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,
In 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.
The New
Year approaches, and this year has not been an easy year. There have been
countless deaths and suffering through wars, diseases and many other causes. Humanity
has wrecked our world and destroyed the lives of our fellow creatures. If I consider
the anguish the world is experiencing, there certainly is ‘little cause for
carolings’.
Yet the
perfect rhymes in the final stanza of the poem creates a mood of hope and
harmony; that not all is doom and gloom. If we placed our trust in humanity,
then I think whatever hopes we carry into the New Year will slowly peter out
and leave us disappointed by failure or deluded by pseudo-success.
Yet we
know that ‘the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people’
(Titus 2:11). We are aware of our ‘blessed Hope’ (v13) and we are waiting for
it. This is a hope that transcends the promise of politicians, economists, environmentalists
and self-help specialists. It is ‘the appearing of the glory of our great God
and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (v13). There is something for us to look forward to in
a New Year certain to be filled with loss and hatred, symptoms of our rebellion
against our Maker.
Just as
we celebrated his humble birth, we should also eagerly await his glorious
return. But for now, let us ‘declare these things’ (v15). There is a Hope that
is offered to everyone, let us not (like Hardy) be unaware.
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