![\"English](\"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/files\/2015\/04\/English-blog-Heather-Mac.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMy Poetry Month<\/a> Choice: “The Darkling Thrush” <\/a>by Thomas Hardy<\/a><\/p>\n Nineteenth-century British poetry is what I teach, so I worried a little that my choice of poem was too obvious. Believe it or not, there are actually lots of non-nineteenth-century (and non-British) poems that I love (everyone should check out Alison Pick<\/a>!) \u00a0But as hard as I tried, I kept coming back to \u201cThe Darkling Thrush.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0I like teaching it because it so neatly captures a turning point between literary periods: we see the \u201ccorpse\u201d of the nineteenth century stretched out on the desolate cultural landscape T.S. Eliot would soon re-imagine as a wasteland. \u00a0But that\u2019s not really why I care about this poem.<\/p>\n No: it\u2019s the bird. That little old bird, \u201cgaunt, and small\u201d \u2013 frail even by bird standards! \u2013 sitting out in the cold wind, surrounded by nothing but broken trees and fading sunlight \u2013 poor bird! \u2013 yet singing his heart out in the most ecstatic way. What\u2019s so moving about it to me is that this tiny, sickly creature chooses<\/em> to sing despite all the bleakness. This bird knows that creating something beautiful isn\u2019t about waiting for inspiration or the perfect moment, because these are illusions. It\u2019s about hope \u2013 and hope is something you choose, often in spite of your circumstances: it\u2019s an act of courage, of defiance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Darkling Thrush<\/strong><\/p>\n I leant upon a coppice gate<\/p>\n When Frost was spectre-grey,<\/p>\n And Winter’s dregs made desolate<\/p>\n The weakening eye of day.<\/p>\n The tangled bine-stems scored the sky<\/p>\n Like strings of broken lyres,<\/p>\n And all mankind that haunted nigh<\/p>\n Had sought their household fires.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The land’s sharp features seemed to be<\/p>\n The Century’s corpse outleant,<\/p>\n His crypt the cloudy canopy,<\/p>\n The wind his death-lament.<\/p>\n The ancient pulse of germ and birth<\/p>\n Was shrunken hard and dry,<\/p>\n And every spirit upon earth<\/p>\n Seemed fervourless as I.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At once a voice arose among<\/p>\n The bleak twigs overhead<\/p>\n In a full-hearted evensong<\/p>\n Of joy illimited;<\/p>\n An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,<\/p>\n In blast-beruffled plume,<\/p>\n Had chosen thus to fling his soul<\/p>\n Upon the growing gloom.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So little cause for carolings<\/p>\n Of such ecstatic sound<\/p>\n Was written on terrestrial things<\/p>\n Afar or nigh around,<\/p>\n That I could think there trembled through<\/p>\n His happy good-night air<\/p>\n Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew<\/p>\n And I was unaware.<\/p>\n ~ Thomas Hardy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Heather McAlpine My Poetry Month Choice: “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy Nineteenth-century British poetry is what I teach, so I worried a little that my choice of poem was too obvious. Believe it or not, there are actually lots of non-nineteenth-century (and non-British) poems that I love (everyone should check out Alison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}