The Darkling Thrush
Thomas Hardy
1840 to 1928
Track 1
Reconstruct the poem by dragging each line into its correct position. Your goal is to reassemble the original poem as accurately as possible. As you move the lines, you'll see whether your arrangement is correct, helping you explore the poem's flow and meaning. Take your time, enjoy the process, and discover how the poet's words come together to create something truly beautiful.
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The ancient pulse of germ and birth
The land's sharp features seemed to be
So little cause for carolings
And I was unaware.
Of joy illimited;
The bleak twigs overhead
And Winter's dregs made desolate
In blast-beruffled plume,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
Seemed fervourless as I.
Upon the growing gloom.
When Frost was spectre-grey,
That I could think there trembled through
The wind his death-lament.
Afar or nigh around,
Had sought their household fires.
In a full-hearted evensong
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
His happy good-night air
Was shrunken hard and dry,
Like strings of broken lyres,
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
The weakening eye of day.
Of such ecstatic sound
At once a voice arose among
And every spirit upon earth
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
The Century's corpse outleant,
Was written on terrestrial things
I leant upon a coppice gate