Hope at the End of the Century

Known for such piercing works of tragedy as Tess of the D'Ubervilles and Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy has never been one for the faint of heart. This distinction remains true in his poem "The Darkling Thrush" written at the end of the 19th century. Pitting a narrator against a desolate landscape with a "beruffled" (Line 22) and singing bird, Hardy uses this juxtaposition to show that natural creatures may know of a happiness far away from suffering that humanity will never understand.

Very much in the same vein as John Keats and Bysshe Shelley, Hardy shows a narrator defined by his predilection to unhappiness who finds comfort in the song of a bird. Referring to the features of the land as "Century's corpse" (Line 10), this narrator is one whose outlook on life at the end of this particular year is not very positive. Every natural occurrence that he feels or sees serves as a reminder that time is passing and hope for the hopeless doesn't seem to be coming any time soon.

It is not until he hears the "evensong" (Line 19) of sickly looking bird that he begins to think more deeply on the nature of happiness. Describing his song as one of "joy illimited" (Line 20), the narrator feels that this bird knows of a happiness of which "[he] is unaware" (Line 24). Although the ending stanza of this poem is one that may offer a glimmer of hope for mankind, the narrator ponders how this creature can know joy in such a terrible land and time. Here, Hardy is speaking very much toward the nature of humanity during this time in the world. Filled with despair and finding joy in nothing, this narrator may enjoy the song of this bird yet will never be able to attain its carefree joviality.

This poem serves as an example to show the nature of suffering and the appreciation of nature. Like Keats and Shelley, Hardy uses a singing bird to show the way a narrator can be moved both mentally and spiritually out of a gloom ridden life. To learn the nature of this bird's happiness is something that humans could never comprehend, but the joy that it brings is something to respect, appreciate and desire.

Ephemeral Power

After having achieved the distinction of being in power and wielding control over one's own subjects, it would be difficult to imagine that the elevated political status should ever disappear. Such an idea sets the stage for the main theme of Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous sonnet "Ozymandias." Presumably having a statue erected in his honor himself, the only memory of this once powerful ruler is broken stone, sunk into the earth where "the lone and level sands stretch far away" (Line 14).

For many a dictator or ruler, power gives them the authority to live a certain type of lifestyle. Being in control of an empire of subjects has had the historical tendency to go directly to the head of the rulers who wield the control. As Shelley describes of this king Ozymandias whose only memory lies vacant in a desert, power more often than not seems to disappear after the subject who hails it has died. On the statue of this king reads, "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;//Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"  (Lines 10-11).

The casual irony with which Shelley constructs this poem cannot be lost on the audience. Here may stand the remnants of a statue that continues to embody the character of its subject, yet the "Works" (Line 11) that the king wishes its bearer to hail no longer remain. Indeed, even the comprehension of the language with which the inscription was written would be lost on the modern "traveller" (Line 1) who discovered this "shattered visage" (Line 4). While his face may remain in tact enough for a stranger to comprehend his demeanor, the actions of King Ozymandias no longer hold any weight now that his empire is lost.

Power can only last for a certain amount of time, and the tendency for these rulers to believe themselves to be immortal is the greatest irony of all. Because this poem was published just before Napoleon's death, an apt comparison can be made to this ruler who held immense power during his life, but whose influence waned almost entirely by the time of his death. Just as the land around the statue of King Ozymandias is "boundless and bare" (Line 13), so too is the haughty superiority with which many an emperor has looked down upon his subjects. Only time can know how long the ephemeral nature of influence will last, and the "sneer of cold command" (Line 5) that characterizes pompous rulers will die along with their impermanent supremacy.

The Failure of Man

To attain the freedom of the beings of nature and the endless happiness that fills their days has often been the dream of many a man and poet. Such is the case for Percy Bysshe Shelley in his famous poem "To a Skylark". Hailing this creature with the ability to live away from the restrictions and unhappiness of daily drudgery, this skylark is a being whose elevation over the souls of man knows not the sufferings that humans face every day.

Though the speaker of the poem highlights the skylark's ability to remain unhindered by ennui, sadness and having the capacity to think deeper and more beautiful thoughts, he acknowledges the fact that man will probably never be able to attain even half the joy that this striking bird must know. Shelley concludes the poem with a plead to this skylark saying, "Teach me half the gladness/That thy brain must know,/Such harmonious madness/From my lips would flow,/The world should listen then--as I am listening now" (Lines 101-105).

Even half of the joy that fills the soul of this bird would be enough for the speaker to teach the world how to live life more happily. If only humanity should connect with Nature on the level that it understands the important aspects of life could man attain the freedom of this skylark. Yet, because this is impossible, man fails to elevate itself to this higher, more natural level.

It is indescribable for this speaker to realize the liberty of this skylark, or to accomplish teaching its message to the masses. Even after comparing this bird to a "poet" (Line 36), a "high-born maiden" (Line 41), a "Glow-worm" (Line 46) and a "rose" (Line 51) in a catalog of similes, the speaker fails to accurately depict the essence of the symbol that Shelley has chosen.

Shelley describes this bird to be like a spirit from heaven, singing on high above all creation, impervious to the sadness and pain that humanity knows all too well. In his praise of this bird, the speaker of Shelley's poem comes to the conclusion that he has failed to not only describe the spirit of this bird, but has also failed to accomplish living up to its freedom. There is a reason why poets look to Nature for inspiration. The natural world can teach man how to live in harmony, beauty, and freedom from sadness and stress. Shelley explores a realistic scenario in this poem. Man may highlight nature as a teacher and as a muse, but the reality is that man will never be able to live up to what nature has to teach, or even half of what it can teach us because humanity is too wrapped up in itself and in its own suffering.

Escape for Keats

There can be no question that life presents many disagreeable scenarios. Be it the loss of a friend, a failure to succeed, a dishonor upon the family, the need to escape from despair into bliss can be achieved by a wide variety of choices and decisions. In his famous and remarkable work "Ode to a Nightingale", John Keats offers such forms of fleeing from anguish into pleasure for a narrator dissatisfied with his lot in life.

Written to a singing bird in the trees, Keats's poem explores a variety of methods for a man to escape from a life with which he is discontented. Beginning his poem with "My heart aches" (Line 1), Keats presents his narrator as unhappy from the commencement. Wishing to simply forget his life and be one with the carefree bird who sings his immortal song, the narrator explores various ways in which he might succeed in leaving his troubled mind behind throughout the work.

The first scenario that the narrator explores is escape through imbibing alcohol. He longs for a "draught of vintage!" (Line 11) so "That [he] might drink and leave the world unseen,/And with thee fade away into the forest dim" (Lines 19-20). Dissatisfied with this choice and remaining jealous of the bird who "hast never known/The weariness, the fever, and the fret" (Lines 22-23) that he has, the narrator instead turns to the beauty and timelessness of poetry. He hails its "viewless wings" (32), but his sight continues to fail him as the night grows on and still his mind is filled with despair.

The most powerful form of escape for this narrator lies in flight forever from this world through death. The narrator proclaims that "for many a time/[He] has been half in love with easeful Death" (Lines 52-52) and that "Now more than ever seems it rich to die" (Line 55). It seems that for this man, only through death will his soul be able to discover peace, away from the pain and suffering that torments his days. He even exalts dying as taking him away with "no pain" (Line 56).

Interestingly enough, the narrator, though he hails these forms of escape while remaining envious of the bird who is able to eschew suffering, never takes action with any of them. He fashions his escape through intoxication, death, poetry and dreaming, but never does he drink, commit suicide or escape his reality. His thoughts stray to these forms, but he takes no concrete action other than escape through his imagination.

Keats explores psychology as well as the beauty and tenacity of language in this poem. This is a remarkably human story that finds its purpose in that escape from this world is only too hard to achieve and the forlorn fancies of pursuing contentment are nearly impossible to come by.

Wordsworth's Power of Nature

Nature's power and beauty is difficult to refute. Natural splendor in all of its forms is both pleasing to the eyes and stimulating to the soul. It was common for the Romantic poet to incorporate Nature as a theme in his poems for these and for other reasons. Nature has a transforming power and, for Wordsworth, that power may offer pleasure both in the present sight as well as the recalled memory.

In his poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", Wordsworth's narrator floats above a beautiful and vast expanse of daffodils. So infinite is the view, that the speaker claims that it is "Continuous as the stars that shine/And twinkle on the milky way" (Lines 7-8). So powerful is the image of these marvelous flora, that even the waves of the bay can't outdo their "sprightly dance" (Line 12). 

While the speaker's appreciation is evident due to the manner in which he describes the view he sees, it is not until he reflects upon the experience that he truly realizes the effect of what he saw.He says, "I gazed--and gazed--but little thought/What wealth the show to me had brought" (Lines 17-18). Here, though he claims that the experience did not bring him much to note while seeing it, he seems to know that upon reflection and consideration, the dancing daffodils will haunt his memory forever. After saying that while lounging, thinking deeply or thinking of nothing at all, the daffodils "flash upon that inward eye" (Line 21). Wordsworth ends the poem with the couplet "And then my heart with pleasure fills/And dances with the daffodils" (Lines 23-24).

Nature's power is one so great as to have an effect on human mood and emotion. The view that the expanse of daffodils afforded to the speaker is one that lives on in his memory, even when he is not seeking to remember it. In any mood, be it "vacant" or "pensive" (Line 20), the memory of this natural experience made a profound impact on mind of the speaker. The profundity of nature is what Wordsworth explores in this poem, and he does so by showing how a simple view of daffodils surrounding a bay affected the spirit of the narrator forever. Natural beauty has a power to which no man made object can possibly compare. One may remember the sight of a beautiful house, a painting, or an elegant piece of furniture, but natural splendor has an effect on the mind and on the soul that words cannot really justify. Wordsworth explores the psyche of a narrator deeply changed by the view he once saw, and that universal theme speaks to the fact that nature's power is one that can never be refuted.

Missing Time for Wordsworth

A poet's use of line breaks is often a deliberate construction used to signify an important meaning within the greater theme of the text as a whole. In William Wordsworth's "A slumber did my spirit seal", the author uses this construction. One may often think that a poem so brief in length could not contain much significant meaning, yet Wordsworth tells a beautiful and tragic love story spanning a unknown number of years in eight simple lines.

It is in the lack on concrete detail that Wordsworth tells the greatest story in this poem. Beginning his poem from perspective of a smitten lover, Wordsworth shows a narrator fascinated by his lover, thinking she can never age or die. He writes, "She seem'd a thing that could not feel/The touch of earthly years" (Lines 3-4). So immortal did she seem that death never crossed the speaker's mind. Impervious to age, a shock comes in the next stanza when the audience learns that she dies. Moving from eternity to morality by a pause that offers no information is how Wordsworth constructs this poem.

Wordsworth opens the second and final stanza with, "No motion has she now, no force/She neither hears nor sees" (Lines 5-6). This jump is certainly an abrupt one considering the fact that just a blank space before, the beloved was not only alive, but unaffected by death. Yet, as stated above, it is  truly in this gap that Wordsworth builds the tragedy of this tale. One cannot know what surpassed in the missing time, so the possibilities are infinite.

The structure that Wordsworth utilizes offers an analysis that a more traditional ballad structure cannot. Here, the absence of story creates the possibility for numerous other ones. Instead of spinning a traditional tragedy spanning decades that many other of his contemporaries might have done, Wordsworth instead writes a simple poem packed with beautiful meaning and despair. Having a narrator separated from the fears of natural humans who is in love with a woman he views as immortal, only to have reality come crashing onto them both is a tale that one would think must take place in more than eight lines of poetry. There lies the genius of Wordsworth's writing and what sets this poem apart from many others in this period.

Art Imitating Life for William Blake

In both "The Lamb" and "The Tyger", William Blake seeks to understand from whence these creatures came to be. Using a certain simplicity of verse, Blake creates two poems whose tone reflects the nature of the creatures that he is describing. In "The Lamb", Blake creates a tone that encourages a thoughtful gentleness that mirrors the nature of the lamb whose origin he questions,whereas in "The Tyger", Blake illustrates the exotic, fearful nature of this beautiful and mysterious creature with powerful imagery.

When one thinks of the nature of a lamb, pastoral imagery might come to mind. Meadows filled with natural splendor bear witness to the calm innocence of the lambs that inhabit it. Blake captures this essence in his poem by calling into question who made this beautiful lamb and adding beautiful imagery with his interrogation. He remarks the lamb's "tender voice" (Line 7) his "softest clothing wooly bright" (Line 6) and how he has the power to make "all the vales rejoice" (Line 8). The imagery that these phrases evoke call to mind the innocent nature of this animal, and that is the tone with which Blake creates this poem. Linking the lamb to Jesus Christ, Blake refers to the animal as "meek" and "mild" (Line 15), just like the young Christ. In this poem, art truly imitates life by calling to mind the innocence and simplicity of the tender animal who lends its name to Blake's text.

For "The Tyger", Blake uses the same approach of using the animal's nature to frame the tone of his poem, but the imagery and attitude that he creates could not be more different. Commencing the work with "Tyger Tyger, burning bright/In the forests of the night" (Lines 1-2), Blake begins with a strong statement as to the powerful presence that this creature evokes. Questioning who could frame the creature's "fearful symmetry" (Line 4), Blake is not as able as he was in his previous poem to link this animal to the "meek" and "mild" Christ child described earlier. Indeed, Blake questions who could "dare" to create an animal as ferocious as this "tyger" several times throughout the poem. With its fiery eyes and sinewy heart, Blake wonders, "Did he who made the lamb make thee?" (Line 20).

In both of these poems, Blake questions the origins of the creatures who entitle his works. While one may attest quite early that the same entity should have created both, the difference in demeanor, appearance and attitude of both creatures suggests otherwise to this poet. Both poems use the same poetic device of echoing the tone to the nature of the animal: The lamb being gentle and comforting, while the tiger is wild and outlandish. These poems are a true representation of art imitating life, and Blake links the tone of these poems perfectly to the nature of the animals who entitle them.