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 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
Because he is lonely, he sees everything around him with its gloomy side. He wants to see the darkness of the things as in himself. He is not sure about his feelings towards the positive ones, even he has got no hope.
ReplyDeleteÖznur Öztürk
ReplyDeleteThe setting of the poem is very dark and cold.It is like a winter.There is noone outside and the place the speaker lives is quite just like deads.He is also like a dead person.He has no hope and expect nothing from the future.He cannot find any physical thing inspired him happiness in the environment.
This is a melancholic and gloomy poem. The speaker is so despair and pessimist. It is winter, a dark night and he is alone in the outside. everyone in their home("all mankind that haunted nigh had sought their household fires.")He describes the environment as haunted and emphasize it with ("the tangled bine-steams scored the sky, like strings of broken lyres") musical terms to create a dark and ominous image. He thinks land is haunted because he sees nature as a living thing.
ReplyDeletebuket tanyeri
ReplyDeleteA melancholic feeling is conveyed through the language the author chooses to use:'trings of broken lyres' when describing 'tangled bine-stems'.
BUKET TANYERİ
ReplyDelete‘And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.’
In these two lines we feel that Thomas Hardy’ s criticism towards man’s destroying of nature. The fact that he uses the word ‘Haunted’ suggests the author thinks of nature as almost, human, or living.
BUKET TANYERİ
ReplyDeleteHe continues to paint a gloomy scene of his surroundings; winter has made “dregs” of the bushes and grasses and furthermore made them “desolate’’. The sun is setting, and he refers to the sunset as “the weakening eye of day.”The season of winter becomes his symbol of inner desolation that he feels for himself and his fellows.
BUKET TANYERİ
ReplyDeleteHe claims that all the other people who might be around have “sought their household fires.” He refers to these people as ghosts who might have “haunted nigh.” Every detail that this speaker puts forth adds to the gloomy, dreary melancholy that he is experiencing.
Jiyan TAHER says :
ReplyDeleteAs I read the poem, I saw the difference between first two stanza and the last two one. In other word I can say that there is a shift between 1th two stanza and 2nd two one. If you look carefully, you notice him using lots of negative loaded words in the first two stanzas. But in stanza number 3 you will notice the change in the poet’s use of diction, and suddenly he makes use of positively loaded words too. So I can say that the poem is divided into two parts.
1th two stanzas
Gloomy atmosphere. Using negative loaded words such as: grey, desolate, broken,
Haunted, fevourless. The words are the symbol of death, winter, hopeless and ending.
2nd two stanzas
Spreading warmth. Using positive loaded words such as: frail, aged,
Gaunt and small still remains, evensong, full-hearted and joy illumined.
The words are the symbol of hopness, spring, life, starting
As we know the poem takes place on New Year’s Eve, the last day of the 19th century. And it’s the end of the Victorian Age.
So we can say that: Thomas wants to compare the Victorian Age with the coming Age and he is dealing with the turn of the century.
In this poem the poet foreshadows the twentieth century.It was written on the last day of the nineteenth century.He is hopeless about the feature and he is in a depressive mood.He says that:" There is no hope for rebirth of the century.
ReplyDeleteFatma Kaya
ReplyDeletehere is the whole poem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxRyjAWxKGg
it is very gloomy poem i think. The rhyming scheme is formulaic ababcdcd, the tone is pessimistic and yet there is something that resonates long after the poem has been read.
ReplyDeleteIn the first line the narrator says,
"I leant upon a coppice gate"
This refers to a gate leading to a wood. Woods are often dark and gloomy. Normally a door or a gate leads to new beginnings but in this case it doesn't seem hopeful. He leans upon it, which suggests reflection but also tiredness. The season reflects the mood. It is winter and frosty, which reminds us of a coldness of emotions. He is alone taking in his surroundings.
I agree with my friends.The poem is really written in a gloomy mood.While reading you can not do anything but to feel the desolation of the poet.There are so many words that indicate the darkness of the setting.Everything is so cold and dark.The winter is the best indicator of his emotional state.The silence makes desolation much unbearable...Maybe the mood will change later but its too late to feel better now...
ReplyDeletein that poem, poet talks about a cold winter night. he is alone in the nature. he fears because he is lonely.
ReplyDeletehe doesnt have any affection towards the nature.
nature is something bad for him. and he hast got any belief in god.
the poem is a pessimist poem.
he talks about the bad sides of nature. for him, it is the reflection of god, and for that reason it is also bad. and he resembles nature to a hunted thing. it indicates that he believes that nature is alive. and he thinks that people is giving harm to it. thus, it is hunted.
poet also talks about the people who are staying at their peaceful, warm homes while poet is in the nature, weather is cold and the scene is scary. he doesnt feel and relief or any kind of security.
it carries the characteristics of the end of Vitorian age and beginning of the th century.
there is a chaos inside of the poet.
Öznur Öztürk
ReplyDeleteThe speaker is in an environment, a place, but he cannot find any physical thing inspired him joy.So, the source of joy in bird cannot be in nature.The source of joy in the bird is spiritual.He has the knowled but he cannot reach thatspiritual thing.
GULNOZA
ReplyDeleteThe sole purpose of this poem is to indicate Thomas Hardy's depression in not having a buddy. the bird is happy because it is getting some but Hardy is having it rough with no sort of passion in his life and he sees no positivity or motivation because of this, life is just very uneventful and he is just taking it in not bothered enough to change it but just enough to let it pass by.