What are the themes of nature in "The Darkling Thrush?"

"The Darkling Thrush" was first published in 1900 and was originally entitled "The Century's End, 1900." At the turn of the twentieth century, there was much pessimism in Victorian poetry, in part because religious faith had been eroded by the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and also in part because many Romantic poets saw the natural landscape increasingly blighted by the process of industrialization. This pessimism is evident in the first two stanzas of "The Darkling Thrush." Indeed, the poem begins in the "spectre-grey" of "Winter's dregs," and the nineteenth century is described, metaphorically, as "The Century's corpse outleant." The allusions to death continue with references to the corpse's "crypt," the wind's "death-lament," and the "pulse" of the earth being "shrunken hard and dry."

In the third stanza, Hardy introduces the symbol of hope in the form of the thrush. The emergence of the thrush's "full-hearted evensong" comes as something of a relief to the speaker, and to the reader too, after the previous two stanzas of death and decay. Because Hardy establishes such a miserable mood in the first two stanzas, the hope embodied by the thrush in the third seems even more precious. The thrush is also presented as "aged . . . frail, gaunt, and small," compounding the idea that this hope is precious and fragile. It is a hope which we fear may not last long in the cold winter climate. In this sense, one might argue that Hardy seems to be pessimistic about the hope embodied by the thrush. At the end of the stanza, as if to confirm this view, the thrush "fling(s) his soul / upon the growing gloom." The implication here is that the thrush, and thus the hope he represents, has indeed died in this cold climate. Accordingly, the "gloom" is described as "growing," and the continuous use of the "ing" suffix implies that the gloom shall continue growing indefinitely.

By the fourth and final stanza, however, the death of the thrush seems heroic and defiant. The thrush becomes something of a martyr, who died to give the speaker and others like him a glimpse of hope to sustain them through the winter. The speaker seems to take inspiration from the thrush, who sang its soul out and died with hope in its heart rather than giving in and quietly dying, as it might have done. The speaker imagines that the thrush must have been aware of "Some blessed Hope," of which he, the speaker, was unaware. The conclusion of the poem is thus that there is a hope, even if it is only "frail, gaunt, and small."

In Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush," it is evident that the narrator feels desolate and devoid of hope himself. The land around him seems to him as "the Century's corpse," the leaves stripped from the trees by winter. Having personified the land as a dead thing, Hardy then alludes to the wind and the "cloudy canopy" using funereal imagery, a "death-lament" and "crypt." In this funereal atmosphere, then, the song of the thrush strikes the speaker as out of place. The "joy illimited" in the song of this thrush, itself a "frail" and old bird with no apparent cause to sing, strikes the speaker as somewhat baffling. He looks around and finds "little cause for carolings" in the dead landscape of winter.

Ultimately, however, the speaker does trust that there is hope somewhere; albeit, he himself cannot see it. The "joy" in the voice of the thrush is so pure that he determines there must be "some blessed Hope" which gives the bird reason to sing; although, he himself is not aware of it. While the bird's song does not appear to transmit joy into the poet, made desolate by "the dregs of Winter," we can infer from the poem's culmination that he has perhaps found some resignation that this state of affairs will not last forever. Although the poet cannot feel it at this time, the bird knows, and the speaker trusts in its knowledge, that spring will soon come and bring hope with it.

What is the theme of Chaos and Order in "The Darkling Thrush"?

I would suggest that the theme of order and chaos is embedded in Hardy's poems through a couple of ways.  One such way is in the structure of the poem. The poem's structure is in a conventional meter and rhyme.  The form of the poem helps to provide some level of order to a thematic exploration where there is only chaos and confusion.  There is little in way of certainty of what the speaker, presumably Hardy, will find in the future.  The poetic construction of the poem is the order through which Hardy is able to explore the chaos that is a part of the modern setting.

The theme of chaos and order is also seen in the song of the thrush, itself.  It can be interpreted as an example of the theme in a few manners.  The speaker does not know why the brush sings the evening song it sings.  There is a beauty evident in this moment that the speaker captures.  Yet, why it does what it does cannot be fully explained.  The dissonance this creates helps to establish the order and chaos theme.  Another way of examining the theme in this moment would be in the reveling of the moment, itself.  In the midst of a world that has lost its connection to a traditional past, something about which the speaker feels terrible, the song of the bird reminds the speaker of the order that does in fact exist.  There can be beauty.  There can be redemption even in a setting that might appear devoid of it.  In this, there is an establishment of order in a world of chaos.

Finally, I think that the exposition to the poem might also support the chaos and order theme.  The speaker leans on a gate.  The speaker examines the world and all of its implications from a place of order and structure.  While there is a clear indication of chaos all around the speaker, the ability to lean on the gate and find support in a world where it is absent is part of the order and chaos thematic dynamic that is a part of the poem.