What is the significance of the time "The Darkling Thrush" was written?

Thomas Hardy's poem "The Darkling Thrush" was originally titled "By the Century's Deathbed." Hardy may have written the poem in 1899, as an annotation on the poem's manuscript suggests, but the poem was published on December 29, 1900. At the time, some people thought that the new century began on January 1, 1900, while others argued that it really started on January 1, 1901, since there is not a year zero.

In any case, the poet is reflecting on the end of a century, and for most of the poem, he is rather gloomy about it. It is winter, and the landscape is "spectre-grey." The bushes look like broken lyre strings, suggesting that there is little beauty left in the world. People are all tucked into their homes, huddled around their fires.

It seems to the speaker that the "land's sharp features" are actually old "Century's corpse" lying under the "cloudy canopy" as in a crypt. The wind sings a death song, and the speaker senses that "every spirit upon earth" lacks fervor.

Yet in the midst of this gloom, the joyful, "full-hearted evensong" of the thrush fills the air. The bird's music is ecstatic as he says goodnight to the evening and the century and proclaims "Some blessed Home" that he knows but the speaker does not. Nature is far from dead; life continues even as the century changes.

What is the significance of the title "The Darkling Thrush"?

At the beginning of "The Darkling Thrush," the speaker presents a rather somber, melancholy, and wintry scene. He says that the "frost was spectre-grey" and that the "winter's dregs made desolate / The weakening eye of day." The season of winter connotes cold, darkness, and death. The word spectre also suggests that the speaker feels haunted by this cold, darkness, and death. The image of the "weakening eye of day" suggests that the daylight is being overwhelmed by the darkness.

In the second stanza, the speaker compounds this impression of desolation and misery. He personifies the century that is drawing to a close as a "corpse outleant," and he describes the dark clouds overhead as the "crypt" in which that corpse is laid.

In the third stanza, the speaker hears "a voice" that he describes as "full-hearted" and full of "joy illimited." This voice belongs to an "aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small." Hearing the beautiful and joyous voice of the bird gives the speaker a momentary, fleeting cause for hope. Hearing the bird's song, the speaker is able to believe, even if only for a brief moment, that there is life and hope in this otherwise dark and dreary world.

The fact that the thrush is "aged ... frail, gaunt and small," however, indicates that the life and hope symbolized by the bird will only be temporary. This is also emphasized by the title of the poem. The -ling suffix in "darkling" implies something that is small and getting smaller. The word darkling to describe the thrush also suggests that even the thrush, with the hope which it symbolizes, is being overwhelmed and consumed by the pervasive, ubiquitous darkness of the wintry scene.