the darkling thrush by thomas hardy

In the title, the use of the word “Darkling” to describe the thrush rather than the evening suggests that the songbird cannot be distinguished from its environment. Yet, by the end of the poem, it becomes clear that the thrush’s song stands totally in contrast to the gloominess of the day. In some sense, then, the title begins the arc of the poem by expressing a totally pessimistic perspective, one which is upended by the thrush’s hopeful song. Nevertheless, because “The Darkling Thrush” is the poem’s title, rather than its first line, it also functions as a label for the poem as a whole. In this sense, it suggests that even the thrush may not differ from the world it inhabits as much as its song seems to indicate.