Stanza 1
The initial lines of “The Darkling Thrush” set the tone and scene of the poem. Hardy highlights the speaker’s reflective state by describing him leaning on a “coppice gate,” which is a gate leading to the woods. The frost indicates it is winter, and the term “spectre-grey,” a word invented by Hardy, conveys a ghostly landscape. The word “dregs” signifies the remnants of something, but here it affects the “weakening eye of day,” rendering the twilight “desolate.”

In lines five and six, the speaker uses a simile to liken “tangled bine-stems” to “strings of broken lyres.” Bine-stems are the stems of climbing plants, and a lyre is a stringed musical instrument akin to a harp. Although “score” is a musical term, Hardy employs it to create a foreboding visual image. While the speaker contemplates a bleak landscape outside, the rest of the world is cozy inside, warmed by “their household fires.”

Stanza 2
In this stanza, the speaker uses a metaphor to depict the barren landscape as the corpse of the nineteenth century. The now personified century is entombed in the sky, referred to as “the cloudy canopy,” and the wind serves as its “death lament.” Lines 13–14 mention the seeds of spring, now “shrunken hard and dry.” This description literally portrays what happens to seeds in winter, but figuratively, the speaker suggests that nature’s processes are halted, implying that the next spring may never arrive. In the final two lines, the speaker relates himself to “every spirit upon earth,” projecting his gloom onto the entire world.

Stanza 3
This stanza introduces a shift in tone and action, as the speaker hears an elderly thrush begin to sing. Thrushes are common songbirds, typically with brownish upper feathers and a spotted breast. “Evensong” refers to a song sung in the evening, significant here for both an “aged” bird and because it is the last day of a century. The image of the bird “choosing” to “fling his soul / Upon the growing gloom” conveys both hope and desperation, mirroring the speaker’s own feelings. This image also brings to mind the phoenix, a mythical bird known for its beautiful song and its ability to rise from its own ashes.

Stanza 4
In this stanza, the speaker expresses disbelief at the bird’s cheerful singing ("carolings"), genuinely wondering what earthly ("terrestrial things") could make it so joyful. The contrast of a happy bird in such a desolate setting is striking, leaving the speaker perplexed. Although he can identify joy, he cannot feel it himself. Yet, the word "blessed," the capitalization of "Hope," and the phrase "terrestrial things" hint at possible religious or spiritual reasons for the thrush’s behavior. The speaker’s admission that he is "unaware" of why the bird sings also implies that there might indeed be a reason, and that he may eventually discover it.