The Darkling Thrush

I think that basically this poem is about someone experiencing the end or 'death' of the year and beginning or 'birth' of a new one.

As it is the end of the year, the weather is obviously very wintery and cold. Everything is described to be quite bland and dull, this is proberly to do with the fact that the year has 'died' and so has everything to do with it. Hardy has used strong negative and quite depressing words such as 'haunted', 'corpse, and 'desolate' to describe the year's settings. It makes the poem seem more depressing and is a way of using personification to make the year sound as though a person has died rather than just an age. As well as using personification to describe the death of the year he also uses capital letters at the beginning of the words 'Winter' and 'Frost'. It is as if he is addressing a person as opposed to just describing the weather.

Everything seems to be rather bleak until the third stanza where the Drakling thrush enters. Hardy describes it's entry as 'a voice arose among the bleak twigs overhead...' It is described this way to make it seem like a small ray of hope has emerged amongst the dread. Rather than just stating that he could hear the bird singing, it had a grand entrance to make it seem more important, especially since it 'arose', almost god-like, over the 'bleak twigs' which doesn't sound very appealing becuase the word bleak is usually used to describe something dim and dank or when someone's future looks 'bleak' meaning that it doesn't look like they will have a good one.

After Hardy gets the reader feeling remorse for the dying year he then lightens your spirits by using more appealing vocabulary such as 'Ecstatic' and 'blessed' almost to try and get you prepared and excited about the new year instead of continually mourning the previous one.