Birches

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CONTENTS
Introduction to Poetry 1-5 7. Desiderata 181-197
Glossary, About the Poem, About the Poet, Summary,
1. The Darkling Thrush 6-33 Paraphrase/Explanation, Title, Style, Themes, Setting, Critical
Glossary, About the Poem, About the Poet, Summary, Appreciation, Comprehension (Not for examination point of
Paraphrase/Explanation, Title, Style, Themes, Setting, Critical view), Assignment (Long Questions)
Appreciation, Comprehension (Not for examination point of
view), Assignment (Long Questions) 8. Dover Beach 198-231
2. Birches 34-72 Paraphrase/Explanation, Title, Style, Themes, Setting, Critical
view), Assignment (Long Questions) 9. The Spider and the Fly 232-249
3. The Dolphins 73-104 Paraphrase/Explanation, Title, Style, Themes, Setting, Critical
view), Assignment (Long Questions) 10. We are the Music Makers 250-272
4. The Gift of India 105-125 Paraphrase/Explanation, Title, Style, Themes, Setting, Critical
view), Assignment (Long Questions) Specimen Papers 1 to 6 (Solved) 273-300
5. Crossing the Bar 126-155
Paraphrase/Explanation, Title, Style, Themes, Setting, Critical
view), Assignment (Long Questions)
6. John Brown 156-180

Paraphrase/Explanation, Title, Style, Themes, Setting, Critical
view), Assignment (Long Questions)
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Introduction to Poetry (ii) Line: A unit of meaning, a measure of attention. The line is
a way of framing poetry. All verse is measured by lines. The
poetic line immediately announces its difference from everyday
Poetry is meant to inspire readers and listeners, to connect speech and prose. An autonomous line makes sense on its
them more deeply to themselves even as it links them more own, even if it is a fragment. It is end-stopped and completes
fully to others. But many people feel put off by the terms of a thought. The first line in Keats’s “Endymion” is end-stopped:
poetry, its odd vocabulary, its notorious difficulty. They may “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” By contrast, an enjambed
like or even love individual poems—they often seek them for line carries the meaning over from one line to the next, as in
ritual occasions, like weddings and funerals—but they the next four lines of Keats’s poem: “Its loveliness increases;
nonetheless feel that poetry itself isn’t for them. They’ve it will never / Pass into nothingness, but still will keep / A
been dispirited by their memories of school. I’ve always bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams...”
believed, however, that poetry goes well beyond the classroom Whether end-stopped or enjambed, however, the line in a
and speaks to a wide variety of people in all kinds of poem moves horizontally, but the rhythm and sense also drive
circumstances. It delivers us to ourselves and helps us to live it vertically, and the meaning continues to accrue.
our lives. The terms of poetry—some simple, some complicated,
(iii) Iambic pentameter: A five-stress, roughly 10 syllable line.
some ancient, some new—should bring us closer to what
This fundamental line, established by Chaucer (1340?-1400)
we’re hearing, enlarging our experience of it, enabling us to
for English poetry, was energized when English attained a
describe what we’re reading, to feel and think with greater
condition of relative stability in the late fifteenth and early
precision.
sixteenth centuries. It might be the traditional formal line closest
I’ve spent more than a decade putting together A Poet’s to the form of our speech and thus has been especially favored
Glossary, a book of familiar and unfamiliar terms, a by dramatists ever since Christopher Marlowe, whose play
compendium of discoveries that has befriended me. The devices Tamburlaine (1587) inaugurated the greatest Elizabethan
work the magic in poetry, and a glossary gives names to those drama, and William Shakespeare, who used it with astonishing
devices. It unpacks them. It is meant to be useful, enjoyable, virtuosity and freedom. John Milton showed how supple and
enlightening, something to keep at hand. Its ultimate purpose dignified the pentameter line could be in Paradise Lost (1667):
is to deepen the reader’s initiation into the mysteries. “Of man’s first disobedience, and the fall / Of that forbidden
Here then are 10 key terms that can enlarge your tree, whose mortal taste / Brought death into the world, and
understanding of poetry: all our woe, / With loss of Eden, till one greater Man / Restore
(i) Rhythm: The word rhythm comes from the Greek word us, and regain the blissful seat, / Sing, Heav’nly Muse...”
rhythmos, “measured motion,” which in turn derives from a (iv) Stanza: The natural unit of the lyric: a group or sequence of
Greek verb meaning “to flow.” Rhythm is sound in motion. It lines arranged in a pattern. A stanzaic pattern is traditionally
is related to the pulse, the heartbeat, the way we breathe. It defined by the meter and rhyme scheme, considered repeatable
rises and falls. It takes us into ourselves; it takes us out of throughout a work. A stanzaic poem uses white space to
ourselves. Rhythm is the combination in English of stressed create temporal and visual pauses. The word stanza means
and unstressed syllables that creates a feeling of fixity and “room” in Italian?—?“a station,” “a stopping place”?—?and
flux, of surprise and inevitability. Rhythm creates a pattern of each stanza in a poem is like a room in a house, a lyric
yearning and expectation, of recurrence and change. It is dwelling place. Each stanza has an identity, a structural place
repetition with a difference. in the whole. As the line is a single unit of meaning, so the
1 Reverie A Col. of ISC Poems Reverie A Col. of ISC Poems 2
stanza comprises a larger rhythmic and thematic sequence. It (vii) Sonnet: The fourteen-line rhyming poem was invented in
is a basic division comparable to the paragraph in prose, but southern Italy around 1235 or so. The word sonnet derives
more discontinuous, more insistent as a separate melodic and from the Italian sonetto, meaning “a little sound” or “a little
rhetorical unit. In written poems stanzas are separated by song,” but the stateliness of the form belies the modesty of
white space, and this division on the printed page gives the the word’s derivation. Something about the spaciousness and
poem a particular visual reality. brevity of the form seems to suit the contours of rhetorical
(v) Metaphor: A figure of speech in which one thing is described argument, especially when the subject is erotic love. The two
in terms of another?—?as when Walt Whitman characterizes main types of sonnet form in English are the English, or
the grass as “the beautiful uncut hair of graves.” The term Shakespearean sonnet (so-called because Shakespeare was
metaphor derives from the Greek metaphora, which means its greatest practitioner), which consists of three quatrains
and a couplet usually rhyming abab, cdcd, efef, gg, and the
“carrying from one place to another,” and a metaphor transfers
Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet (so-called because Petrarch was
the connotations of one thing (or idea) to another. It says A
its greatest practitioner), which consists of an octave (eight
equals B (“Life is a dream”). It is a transfer of energies, a
lines rhyming abbaabba) and a sestet (six lines rhyming
mode of energetic relation, of interpenetration, a matter of
cdecde). The volta, or “turn,” refers to the rhetorical division
identity and difference, a collision, or collusion, in the and shift between the opening eight lines and the concluding
identification of unlike things. Metaphor operates by six.
condensation and compression. It works by a process of
(viii) Epigram: From the Greek epigramma, “to write upon.” An
interaction and draws attention to the categories of language
epigram is a short, witty poem or pointed saying. In Hellenistic
by crossing them. Readers actively participate in making Greece (third century B.C.E.), the epigram developed from
meaning through metaphor, in thinking through the an inscription carved in a stone monument or onto an object,
conjoining?—?the relation?—?of unlike things. such as a vase, into a literary genre in its own right. The
(vi) Simile: The explicit comparison of one thing to another, using Greek Anthology is filled with more than fifteen hundred
the word as or like?—?as when Robert Burns writes: “My epigrams of all sorts, including pungent lyrics on the pleasures
love is like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June: / of wine, women, boys, and song. The epigram has no particular
My love is like the melodie / That’s sweetly play’d in tune.” form, though it often employs a rhymed couplet or quatrain,
The essence of simile is likeness and unlikeness, urging a which can stand alone or serve as part of a longer work.
comparison of two different things. A good simile depends on Here is Alexander Pope’s “Epigram from the French” (1732):
a kind of heterogeneity between the elements being compared. “Sir, I admit your general rule, / That every poet is a fool: /
Similes are comparable to metaphors, but the difference But you yourself may serve to show it, / That every fool is
between them is not merely grammatical. It is a difference in not a poet.”
significance. Metaphor asserts an identity, but simile is a form (ix) Rhyme: The OED defines rhyme as “Agreement in the
of analogical thinking. The simile asserts a likeness between terminal sounds of two or more words or metrical lines, such
unlike things, but also draws attention to their differences. that (in English prosody) the last stressed vowel and any
When Shakespeare asks, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s sounds following it are the same, while the sound or sounds
day?” (Sonnet 18, 1609), he is drawing attention to the artificial preceding it are different.” Rhyme foregrounds the sounds of
process of figuration. words as words. It is mnemonic: “Red sky at night, sailor’s
delight. / Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning.” Rhyme involves
the inner correspondence of end sounds in words or in lines

of verse. W. N. Ewer writes in “The Chosen People” (1924):
CHAPTER 1
“How odd / Of God / To choose / The Jews.” This
exemplifies exact rhyme, since the initial sounds are different, THE DARKLING THRUSH
but all succeeding sounds are identical. It is called near rhyme
when the final consonants are identical but the preceding I leant upon a coppice gate,
vowels or consonants differ, as when W. B. Yeats rhymes
When Frost was spectre-gray,
houses and faces at the opening of “Easter, 1916.”
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
(x) Poem: A made thing, a verbal construct, an event in language.
In ancient Greek, the word poiesis means “making.” The The weakening eye of day.
medieval and Renaissance poets used the word makers, as in The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
“courtly makers,” as a precise equivalent for poets, hence Like strings of broken lyres,
William Dunbar’s “Lament for the Makers” (1508). The word And all mankind that haunted nigh
poem came into English in the sixteenth century and has been
Had sought their household fires.
with us ever since to denote a form of fabrication, a verbal
composition, a humanly created thing of art. The land’s sharp features seemed to me
The Century’s corpse outleant,
Its crypt the cloudy canopy, *
The wind its death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead,
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited.
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small,
With blast-beruffled plume
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things

Afar or nigh around 20. death lament- mourning over the death.
That I could think there trembled through 21. ancient pulse- ancient rhythm.
His happy good-night air 22. of germ and birth- of conception and delivery.
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew, 23. shrunken hard and dry- had slowed down considerably.
And I was unaware. 24. fervourless- devoid of zest, listless.
31 December 1900 25. twigs- small, leafless branches of a tree.
26. full- hearted—whole-hearted- ardent.
Glossary
27. evensong- song sung in the evening.
1. darkling- hidden in the dark. 28. illimited- infinite, boundless.
2. thrush- a bird with a brown back and brown spots on its 29. frail- weak.
chest. 30. gaunt- thin.
3. leant- stood supporting against something. 31. blast-beruffled—disordered and battered by the storm.
4. a coppice gate- a wooden gate. 32. plume- feathers.
5. spectre- grey—dull and grey like a ghost. 33. fling his soul- pour out its heart, (here) sing with great vigour
6. Winter’s dregs- last portion or part of winter. and energy.
7. desolate- cheerless. 34. gloom- darkness.
8. tangled- interwoven, involved. 35. carolings- singing of songs.
9. bine stems- stems of a climbing plant. 36. ecstatic-joyful.
10. scored the sky- lined the sky. 37. terrestrial- earthly.
11. lyre- a kind of stringed musical instrument. 38. afar- at a distance.
12. haunted- visited. 39. nigh- nearby.
13. nigh- near. 40. Whereof- of which.
14. had sought their household fires- had retired to their houses
to warm themselves by their firesides. About the Poem
15. sharp features- prominent features. ‘The Graphic,’ a weekly newspaper, first published the
16. the century’s corpse- the dead body of the 19th century.(poem poem on December 29, 1900, under the title “By Century’s
was written on 29th December to mark the close of the 19th Deathbed”. An article posted on the web site of the ‘Guardian,’
century) a London newspaper, however maintains that the poem was
17. outleant- laid out for burial. written in 1899 and originally entitled “The Century’s End,
1900.” ‘The London Times’ republished the poem on January
18. his crypt- its tomb.
1, 1901. In London later that year, Macmillan published the
19. cloudy canopy- clouds hanging in the sky, regarded by the poem in the second volume of ‘Poems of the Past and Present:
poet as the tomb of the dead century. “Miscellaneous Poems.”

Thomas Hardy’s gloomy poem about the turn of the At the time when Hardy wrote “The Darkling Thrush”
twentieth century, “The Darkling Thrush,” remains one of his in 1900, the British Empire had expanded to include almost 4
most popular and anthologized lyrics. Written on the eve of million square miles. England controlled a sizeable portion of
the new century and first published in ‘Graphic’ with the the world’s land, including India, large swaths of Africa and
subtitle “By the Century’s Deathbed” and then published in China, Australia, and Canada. ‘Poems of the Past and the
‘London Times’ on New Year’s Day, 1901, the thirty-two-line Present’ (1901), which includes “The Darkling Thrush,” also
poem uses a bleak and wintry landscape as a metaphor for contains many poems expressing Hardy’s dismay with British
the close of the nineteenth century and the joyful song of a imperialism. Hardy’s disillusionment with humanity was also
solitary thrush as a symbolic image of the dawning century. disillusionment with his country’s policies. Britain viewed its
Like much of Hardy’s writing, “The Darkling Thrush” embodies imperialistic expansion as a moral responsibility, using Darwin’s
the writer’s despair and pessimism. This is partially offset, theories of evolution as a rationale for exerting greater control
however, by the artfulness of the poem itself. Hardy was over their colonies. British imperialism rested on the surmise
sixty years old when he penned the lyric, far past the life that it was “the white man’s burden,” meaning that it was the
expectancy for a man of his time. A few years earlier he had God-given duty of the British to civilize and Christianize those
stopped writing novels, after critics panned ‘Jude the Obscure,’ people whom the British assumed were incapable of governing
and turned to writing poetry exclusively. “The Darkling Thrush” themselves.
is included in his second volume of verse, ‘Poems of the Past Hardy was also disillusioned with the ways in which
and the Present’ (1901), in the section “Miscellaneous Poems,” industrialization was changing how human beings related to
sandwiched between “The Last Chrysanthemum” and “The their environment. During Queen Victoria’s reign, technologies
Comet at Yell’ham,” two other bleak poems of nature. The such as the railway, electricity, the steamship, and suspension
poem also frequently appears in poetry anthologies because it bridges re-shaped the working lives of millions of British
is a transitional poem, illustrating the trepidation and doubt subjects, sending them flocking to cities to work in factories
many people felt about the future as the Victorian era came and live in row houses. The agricultural depression of the
to an end and the modern era was about to begin. 1870s further depleted the number of remaining farmers. By
the turn of the century, more than 80 percent of Britain’s
The sentiment expressed in the last lines of the poem,
population lived in cities. Hardy’s pessimism, rooted in his
that of a man who would like to feel joy but cannot, mirrors lament for the now abandoned farms of the British countryside
Hardy’s, and many other late Victorians’, attitude towards and for the loss of folk customs and traditions, is a pessimism
religion: he would like to believe in God, but he cannot. This of which the British in general have been historically accused.
shift in attitude came about gradually but was in no small part Poems such as “The Darkling Thrush” did nothing to dispel
due to the influence of Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution. that image.
Darwin’s claim that all life struggles to exist and that it is the
survival of the fittest that ultimately wins out challenged Judeo- About the Poet
Christian notions that “man” is at the center of the universe
and that the goal of one’s life is to strive for moral perfection. One of the most renowned poets and novelists in English
With the popularization of evolution and the formalization of literary history, Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in the English
science education in schools, more people began questioning village of Higher Bockhampton in the county of Dorset. He
the place of human beings in nature and the universe. died in 1928 at Max Gate, a house he built for himself and his

first wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford, in Dorchester, a few miles poets such as Robert Frost, W.H. Auden, Philip Larkin, and
from his birthplace. Hardy’s youth was influenced by the Donald Hall, Hardy forged a modern style that nonetheless
musicality of his father, a stonemason and fiddler, and his hewed closely to poetic convention and tradition. Innovative
mother, Jemima Hand Hardy, often described as the real in his use of stanza and voice, Hardy’s poetry, like his fiction,
guiding star of Hardy’s early life. Though he was an is characterized by a pervasive fatalism.
architectural apprentice in London, and spent time there each
year until his late 70s, Dorset provided Hardy with material Summary
for his fiction and poetry. But other features of southern
England also influenced Hardy, especially as a poet. ‘The Darkling Thrush’ opens with endings: the end of the
Stonehenge was the only the most famous of the many remains year, the end of the day (the ‘weakening eye of day’ sets the
of the past scattered throughout the English south. There poem at dusk), even the end of the century (the original title
Hardy could explore and contemplate Druid and Roman, of the poem was ‘The Century’s End, 1900’: for many,
ancient and medieval ruins, which fascinated him as a writer. including Hardy, the twentieth century only really began in
Hardy was also sensitive to the future; scores of younger 1901, not 1900). But every ending is also a beginning of some
authors, including William Butler Yeats, Siegfried Sassoon, and sort, a limit marking the end of one thing and the start of
Virginia Woolf, visited him, and he discussed poetry with Ezra another. Hardy seems to subject the Victorian age to sharp
Pound. Furthermore, Hardy’s well-known war poems spoke scrutiny, analysing its developments and discoveries in an
eloquently against some of the horrors of his present, notably indirect but suggestive way. The ‘Darkling Thrush’ will intrude
the Boer War and World War I. Hardy addressed the conflicts upon Hardy’s gloomy reflections.
in visceral imagery, often using colloquial speech and the The poem’s speaker leans upon a woodland gate and
viewpoint of ordinary soldiers. His work had a profound views the land around him as a symbol of the events of the
influence on other war poets such as Rupert Brooke and nineteenth century, the ‘Century’s corpse outleant’; the speaker
Sassoon. is made a part of the scene, not just a detached observer, as
Hardy’s long career spanned the Victorian and the ‘outleant’ echoes the speaker’s own action at the start of the
modern eras. He did not seem by nature to be cheerful: much poem (‘I leant upon a coppice gate’). The century is dying
of the criticism around his work concerns its existentially (‘crypt’, ‘death-lament’) because it is at its end, but also
bleak outlook, and, especially during Hardy’s own time, sexual because something has died as a result of the events of that
themes. Incredibly prolific, Hardy wrote fourteen novels, three century: religious faith. Thomas Hardy lost his own faith in
volumes of short stories, and several poems between the years Christianity early in life, partly as a result of his reading of
1871 and 1897. Hardy’s great novels, including Tess of the Auguste Comte and Charles Darwin.A writer like Hardy could
D’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895), were all no longer take solace from Christianity, or have unequivocal
published during this period. They both received negative confidence in the future of the world. Too much had been
reviews, which may have led Hardy to abandon fiction to learnt, too much lost.
write poetry. This religious dimension to the poem is borne out by
From 1898 until his death in 1928 Hardy published eight Hardy’s personal beliefs. In ‘The Darkling Thrush’ itself we
volumes of poetry; about one thousand poems were published are given clues that religion is on the speaker’s mind. In the
in his lifetime. However, Hardy’s lyric poetry is by far his third stanza, when the thrush of the title appears (‘darkling’
best known, and most widely read. Incredibly influential for is an old poetic word for ‘in darkness’ – )its song is described

as ‘evensong’, suggesting the church service, while the use of wondered whether the bird was a harbinger of some hope of
the word ‘soul’ also suggests the spiritual.The fact that the which he was unaware.
thrush, despite being ‘aged’ and ‘small’, can still sing a song
filled with ‘joy illimited’ is contrasted with the speaker’s lack Paraphrase/Explanation
of hope and joy (if we take the speaker of the poem to be
Hardy himself, he, too, is aged: Hardy was sixty in 1900). The The opening lines of “The Darkling Thrush” establish the
word ‘illimited’ is typical Hardy: not ‘unlimited’ (suggesting tone and the setting of the poem. Hardy underscores the
excess) but ‘illimited’, describing a joy that is unaffected by speaker’s meditative mood by describing him leaning upon a
knowledge of such things as the end of the year or the end “coppice gate,” meaning a gate that opens onto the woods.
of the century, the very limits or endings which prey upon the The presence of frost tells readers it is winter, and the adjective
speaker’s mind. “spectre-grey,” a word Hardy coined, suggests a haunted
landscape. The word “dregs” means the last of something,
The poem ends on an ambiguous note: is the speaker but here the dregs act upon the “weakening eye of day,”
inspired by the ‘blessed Hope’ of the thrush’s song, or does making the twilight “desolate.”
he continue to lack optimism for the future? He is ‘unaware’
In the fifth and sixth lines, the speaker uses a simile to
of the thrush’s reasons for being cheerful, but he seems to
compare “tangled bine-stems” to “strings of broken lyres.”
believe that such a cause for hope exists somewhere, and he
Bine-stems are the stems of shrubs, and a lyre is a stringed
simply hasn’t discovered (or rediscovered) it yet. This
musical instrument similar to a harp. Although “score” is a
ambivalence is partly what helps to make ‘The Darkling
musical term, Hardy uses it to create an ominous visual image.
Thrush’ not only a great Thomas Hardy poem to read, but While the speaker is outside contemplating a bleak landscape,
also a great piece of poetry to analyse. Unlike the thrush’s the rest of the people have retired to their homes to sit by the
carolings, Hardy’s poem does not sound an unconditionally fireside to warm themselves. Here the narrator does not include
positive note. himself amongst all mankind. For himthe non- living things are
When the frost was ghostly gray and the depressing as important as the living ones. Frost is personified as a living
winter landscape made the setting sun seem lonely and entity and the day has an eye, namely, the sun. No activity is
abandoned, the speaker leaned on a gate before a thicket of described in the bleak landscape.
small trees. Twining plants, rising high, were silhouetted against In the 2nd stanza, the speaker uses metaphor to describe
the sky like the strings of broken lyres. All the people who the barren landscape as the corpse of the nineteenth century.
lived nearby were inside their homes, gathered around their The now personified century is entombed in the sky (“the
household fires. The countryside looked like a corpse. The cloudy canopy”), and the wind is its “death lament.” The poet
cloudy sky was the roof of the corpse’s crypt, the speaker refers to the seeds of spring in lines 13–14, which are now
says, and the wind its song of death. The cycle of birth and “shrunken hard and dry.” The description literally depicts what
rebirth seemed to have shrunken and dried up, like the spirit happens to seeds during winter, but figuratively the speaker
of the speaker. ....... But then he heard the joyful song of a implies that the very processes of nature are at a standstill
bird—a frail old thrush—coming from scrawny branches and that the next spring might not come. In the last two lines,
overhead. The song was a jubilant outpouring against the the speaker compares himself with “every spirit upon earth,”
evening gloom. The dreary landscape gave the thrush no reason projecting his despondency onto the world. Herein lies the
to sing with such overflowing happiness. The speaker crux of the poem that the 19th century has ended.

The image of death is predominant in this stanza. The Style

death of an era in which the old ways of life and old values
were greatly jolted by scientific and technological advances , “The Darkling Thrush” is a lyric poem with four eight-
industrialization and urbanization. Like others there is no solace line stanzas. Composed in four octet, or eight-line, stanzas,
for him and he is doubtful about the era that is about to begin. with an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme, “The Darkling Thrush”
is written in iambic tetrameter, with lines one, three, five, and
Third stanza marks a break in the tone and action of the
seven carrying four stressed syllables, and lines two, four, six,
poem, as the speaker hears an old thrush break out in song.
and eight carrying three stressed syllables. In poetry, a foot
Thrushes are fairly common songbirds and usually have a
refers to a group of syllables, one of which is accented. An
brownish upper plumage and a spotted breast. “Evensong”
iambic foot, the most popular in English verse, consists of an
means a song sung in the evening, significant here both for an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. The
“aged” bird and because it is the last day of a century. The restrictions of these conventional features are at odds with
image of the bird “choosing” to “fling his soul / Upon the the tone of despair and portrayal of meaninglessness in the
growing gloom” suggests both hope and desperation and poem, creating a tension that gives the poem energy and
resonates with the speaker’s own emotions. The image also emotional depth.
evokes the phoenix, a mythological bird with a beautiful song
Hardy is known for his innovative use of the English
that self-reincarnates from its own ashes. The birds song
language, and he frequently coined new words in his poetry.
suggests that nothing is absolutely negative.
He called words created for a single occasion “nonce words,”
In the 4th stanza, the speaker expresses incredulity at and in “The Darkling Thrush” he uses a few, including
the bird’s singing (“carolings”), literally wondering what on “outleant,” “blastberuffled,” and “spectre-gray” to fit the meter
Earth (“terrestrial things”) could make it so happy. The and rhyme scheme of the poem. He was especially deft at
incongruity of a joyful bird amidst such a stark landscape is creating compound words such as the latter two. Hardy also
striking, and it puzzles the speaker who, though he can recognize echoed unusual words used by other poets. The unusual word
joy, cannot experience it himself. However, the word “blessed,” “darkling,” for example, was used by John Keats in “Ode to
the capitalization of “Hope,” and the limiting phrase “terrestrial a Nightengale” and by Matthew Arnold in “Dover Beach.”
things” open the possibility that there might be religious or
spiritual reasons for the thrush’s behavior. The speaker’s Themes
acknowledgement that he is “unaware” of the cause of the
The poem “The Darkling Thrush” has various themes
bird’s singing also suggests the possibility that there may indeed
interwoven in it.
be a cause for it and that the speaker might in time come to
know that cause. (i) Search for Meaning
The narrator’s despair echoes Hardy’s own world-
Title weariness and loss of hope for humanity’s future. Isolated
from those who have “sought their household fires,” the speaker
Thomas Hardy wrote “The Darkling Thrush” to express sees a death-haunted landscape and a “growing gloom.” Hardy
his feelings about the world when it was about to enter the himself mourned the passing of agricultural society and saw
twentieth century. The title refers to a thrush, such as a robin, little cause to celebrate England’s rapid industrialization, which
in darkness (darkling). helped destroy the customs and traditions of rural life. The
speaker’s connection to the past has been severed, and he Critical Appreciation
cannot find meaning in the present, and the dawning century,
symbolized by the thrush’s song, offers little in the way of “The Darkling Thrush” is a lyric poem with four eight-line
meaning. The bird is “frail, gaunt, and small,” and his stanzas. Composed in four octet, or eight-line, stanzas, with
“carolings,” though joyful and “fullhearted,” are an evensong an ABABCDCD rhyme scheme, “The Darkling Thrush” is
and about to end. There is no hope that a new beginning written in iambic tetrameter. Hardy is known for his innovative
might bring new meaning to life , no hope is to be found use of the English language, and he frequently coined new
anywhere, not in the landscape and not in the speaker’s heart. words in his poetry. He called words created for a single
(ii) Nature occasion “nonce words,” and in “The Darkling Thrush” he
uses a few, including “outleant,” “blastberuffled,” and “spectre-
In this poem there is a pessimistic view of nature. Nature
gray” to fit the meter and rhyme scheme of the poem. He
is not a pretty place where flowers bloom and fuzzy animals
was especially deft at creating compound words such as the
frolic in the sun waiting to be petted. It is governed by the
latter two. A student of the English language, Hardy also
cycle of life and death and is largely indifferent to human
echoed unusual words used by other poets. The unusual word
needs or desires. “The Darkling Thrush” de-romanticizes
“darkling,” for example, was used by John Keats in “Ode to
nature by taking even the capacity for renewal away: “The
a Nightengale” and by Matthew Arnold in “Dover Beach.”
ancient pulse of germ and birth, / Was shrunken hard and
dry.” Romantics such as William Wordsworth often depicted On the whole, critics have been kind to “The Darkling
nature as awe-inspiring, simultaneously inscrutable and full of Thrush,” praising both its subject matter and its form. It is one
meaning. Hardy’s speaker, however, finds no inspiration in the of Hardy’s most written-about poems.
processes of the natural world. Though he has meditated on To personify something is to give human qualities to
the nature of life, he has found no life in nature. Even the inanimate things. Hardy does this throughout the poem,
thrush, the harbinger of hope, is “aged” and on its last song. describing twilight as the “weakening eye of day” and the
By using the exhausted landscape as a symbolic projection of landscape as “The Century’s corpse.” Personification allows
the narrator’s own interior life, Hardy makes a bleak comment him to paradoxically make the land “come alive” while at the
on the potential of human nature as well. same time to describe its death-like features.
(iii) Chaos and Order Critics have long called Hardy a transitional figure
between the Victorian era and the modern world. Though it
The form of Hardy’s poem is traditional in meter and
is easy to see the Victorian influences in his poetry, especially
rhyme and acts as a container of sorts for the chaos of the
in his traditional verse forms and his nostalgia for older, simpler
landscape he describes. Other structural parallels similarly
ways of living, it is often more difficult to see what makes
give the poem a coherence that the poem’s themes work him a modernist. In “The Darkling Thrush,” written at the
against. The speaker’s posture leaning “upon a coppice gate,” beginning of a new century, Hardy evokes some of the ideas
for example, is like the “Century’s corpse outleant.” By and sentiments that would influence numerous subsequent poets
juxtaposing the chaos of a dying world with the order of its such as Wilfred Owen, Philip Larkin, and W. H. Auden and
description, Hardy illustrates and underscores his own status that would help to shape modernist attitudes towards history
as a poet with one foot in Victorian England and the other in and humanity. These include the representation of nature as
the modern world. a hostile (or, at best, an indifferent) force, a tolerance for

contradiction, and a deep pessimism about the potential for who were busy digesting notions that their ancestors were
humanity to change its behavior. apes and that human beings are driven as much by biological
The Victorian era, lasting from 1837 until Queen Victoria’s imperatives as they are by rational decision-making. The
death in 1901, was marked by intense and rapid change landscape is not improving but becoming worse than before.
(political, technological, socioeconomic, and psychological), and Hardy believed that if humanity were ever to change, it would
writing during the period often addresses the idea of loss. need to marshal its own resources and not rely on the Christian
One stereotype of Victorian writing, especially poetry, depicts God to rescue it from self-destruction.
it as overly polite, grave, and with a thread of uncertainty and Pessimism was for Hardy not an end in itself but an
doubt running through it. The speaker of “The Darkling Thrush” instrument for exposure of his highly refined sense of reality—
is a typical Hardy character: a watcher, a thinker, one who a sense better captured by the phrase ‘tragic realism’ than
projects onto the physical world his own emotional turmoil. the word ‘pessimism.’” The tragic realism can be seen in the
Paradoxically, the world revolves around him, yet also seems last stanza, in the speaker’s allowance for the possibility that
to ignore him. This intense inwardness is also evident in how human change may be possible, but that it is highly improbable.
the speaker characterizes other people. It is not just some The poem offers two complementary portraits of the
people or some families that have gone inside but “all mankind” “senselessness” of nature. One is literal and the other figurative,
that has retreated from nature’s threatening landscape and corresponding to the two meaning of “darkling”: “in the dark”
“sought their household fires.” and “obscure.”
The speaker is left alone outside with death all around In the first two stanzas, the world appears physically
him. The century that has passed is now a “corpse outleant.” dead. The first suggests the exhaustion of sense experience.
The sense of loss is everywhere, in the “weakening eye of There is little to see in the “spectre-gray” landscape; the “eye
day,” in the “Winter’s dregs,” even in the procreative powers of day” is weak. “Winter’s dregs” offer little to satisfy the
of nature itself, “the ancient pulse of germ and birth,” which sense of taste or smell. Heaviness characterizes the sense of
is now “shrunken hard and dry.” In some ways, the poem is touch, as suggested by Hardy’s use of “leant” to describe his
an elegy for the troubled nineteenth century. Elegies are own physical posture in the scene. Finally, there is no sound
meditative poems that lament the loss of something. However, at all. The image of tangled bine-stems resembling strings of
there is no lamentation for a particular idea or object in Hardy’s broken lyres vividly conveys the utter silence of the scene.
poem—just the recognition of a passing and a sense of gloom The second stanza extends this death-sense to include
and doom that the speaker generalizes to everything and time as well as space. The landscape seems to represent the
everyone around him. The only lamenting done is by the figure century that is ending, or dying, this New Year’s Eve. The
of the century, which mourns itself. For Hardy’s speaker, the land’s desolate features represent more than the simple and
world is going from bad to worse, and the century’s passing conventional figure of wintry death, or the lowest point in the
is merely a way to keep time of misery’s march. cycle of seasons. A greater termination is occurring, involving
The thrush, appearing in the third stanza, arrives as a the very “pulse” of creation. Hardy qualifies this assertion by
potential savior for the darkness threatening literally to bury frankly confessing his own “fervourless” condition.
the speaker. That it “chooses” to “fling his soul / Upon the In the last two stanzas, nature, as represented by the
growing gloom” is significant, for it underscores the importance singing thrush, displays a sudden vigor. Here, too, nature is
of individuality and free will, contentious ideas for late Victorians “senseless,” inasmuch as the song does not arise from anything
perceived in “terrestrial things.” That is, the song is not inspired Comprehension
by anything in the immediate scene, or anything Hardy might
understand as a reason for song. The frailty of the bird itself, Stanza 1
“gaunt and small” with “blastberuffled plumage,” also militates Lines 1-8
against any song.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions
If the thrush is “in the dark,” singing at night, flinging its that follow.
soul into the “growing gloom,” it is also singing for what must
I leant upon a coppice gate
remain to humanity decidedly obscure reasons. Whatever
prompts the bird’s song is not evident to Hardy. The “illimited When Frost was spectre-gray
joy” of the song and “blessed hope” it betokens seem small And Winter’s dregs made desolate
recompense for the pain men and women endure now and The weakening eye of day
have endured through the century. If the bird sings while The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
humanity confronts the desolation of its existence, the question
Like strings of broken lyres
arises whether nature has any sense—awareness or concern—
at all, for the thrush’s joy can only be heard as an ironic And all mankind that haunted night
comment on humanity’s joyless state. Had sought their household fires.
The image of tangled and overgrown stems illustrates 1. Describe what time of the year is it in the poem?
humanity’s failure to find in nature a suitable accompaniment Ans. It is dreary winter day. It is grey and dull.
to its own human song. Things of the physical universe live, 2. Is this a poem about the end of the nineteenth century
grow, and overgrow regardless of human wishes or needs. If or the beginning of the twentieth?
the lyre was played in paeans to the gods, the tangled lyrestems
Ans. This poem is about the end of the nineteenth century but n the
suggest that nature offers no substitute for those lost spirits.
end the poet shows his doubts about the beginning of the
Neither God nor nature accompanies humanity, comforts or
twentieth century. He feels unsure.
consoles people, in this earthly existence. In this respect, “The
Darkling Thrush” is about the death of hope in the nineteenth 3. Where is our speaker? What do we gather about him
century; for having lost faith in God and nature, people can from his posture?
place faith in no other benevolent Ans. Our speaker is leaning up against a gate leading to a big patch
Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush,” written to commemorate of brush and brambles. The fact that he is leaning and needs
the end of the nineteenth century, has always been called one support shows that he is weak and old.
of Hardy’s representative poems, sometimes even his best 4. What figure of speech is used with reference to frost?
poem. Why is it written with a capital ‘F’?
Ans. The poet uses personification, wherein Frost attains human-
like characteristics. Frost is written with a capital “F” to
emphasize the “almost human” part of Frost’s description.
The speaker thinks that Frost is “spectre-gray.” “Spectre” is
a nineteenth-century word for “ghost.” So if Frost is human-
like (with a capital letter), it’s also ghost-like, which is not Industrial Revolution changed how work was done. So if people
exactly human. are walking around like ghosts, it might just be because industry
5. What is meant by ‘weakening eye of day’? has turned them into automatons.
Ans. The phrase, ‘weakening eye of day’refers to the sun which Stanza 2
is also not shining brightly thus enhancing the cold and gloomy Lines 9-16
winter’s day. The land’s sharp features seemed to be
6. What impression does the poet give about the The Century’s corpse outleant
landscape? His crypt the cloudy canopy
Ans. The poet speaks as if the world is nearing extinction. The The wind his death-lament
whole world seems mostly dead as the day was already
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
weakening before Winter’s dregs started making things even
worse.As he gazes into the patch of tangled brushes, he can Was shrunken hard and dry
see only …death and destruction. And every spirit upon earth
7. What does the poet compare the vines to? Seemed fervourless as I.
Ans. The vines in front of him look a lot like the broken bits of a 1. What does the land embody?
lyre, a classical harp-like instrument. The lyre is a classical Ans. The land becomes a map of everything that’s happened over
instrument and here Hardy uses allusion to the ancient Greek the course of the century. In fact, it starts to embody the
and Roman culture. The lyre was used to create lively music Century. Or at least, the dead century. The century is dead.
but here the reference is to its broken stings denoting Dead as a doornail.
destruction and gloominess.
2. What role is played by nature at this point?
8. How does the poet show that there is no activity? Where
Ans. All of nature seems to conspire to mourn the passing of the
are all the people?
century. The sense that the outer world will mimic or manifest
Ans. The poet says that all the people have retired indoors to seek your own emotions a very Romantic notion A Romantic poet
the warmth of their fireplaces and all activity has ceased might believe that if you’re smiling, the sun would come out.
outside. It is bleak and dull.There is life out there somewhere, Hardy’s at least a century away from the Romantics, but he
it just doesn’t happen to be anywhere nearby. The speaker seems to be stealing a few tricks from their bag in this particular
makes it clear that the people who were out and about earlier phrase.
were “haunting” the landscape. This word haunting again
3. What are the figurative roles played by the wind and
introduces the ides of death and destruction due to
clouds with reference to the corpse of the 19th century?
industrialization and urbanization where all outdoor activity in
the farms has ceased.Hardy’s writing at the end of the Industrial Ans. The dead century is laid to rest under the canopy of the
Revolution, which turned the nineteenth century onto its head. clouds as in a tomb while the lament is sung by the howling
Britain transformed almost overnight: what was once a mainly winds of the cold winter season.
agrarian nation became industrial. People migrated to cities, 4. How has Hardy used rhythm to highlight the void of the
which soon became packed with smog and soot and all sorts world?
of other nasty things. More to Hardy’s point, though, the Ans. Although,the speaker gets off on the ending of all things, the

poem’s rhythm remains utterly constant and conventional.To as there’s a period after every four lines or so. But at the end
understand Hardy’s use of rhythm try reading lines 13-14 of line 20, we don’t have a period. We have a semi-colon
aloud. They should sound something like this: The AN-cient- which is half a period, but it’s also half a comma. The
PULSE-of-GERM-and-BIRTH / Was-SHRUNK-en-HARD- sentence goes on for another four whole lines. It’s like the
and-DRY.There’s a totally regular pattern of accented and poem is breathing a sigh of relief and opening up. The thrush’s
unaccented syllables. It is a conventional rhythm. Which is song is introducing a strain of joy in the gloomy landscape.
pretty surprising as he is talking about death and decay and 2. What is new about the landscape now?
everything changing. Hence the poem’s rhythm should be
Ans. All of a sudden, out of all that silence and death and never-
irregular and unconventional. But that is not the case . The
ending grayness, the speaker hears something. And not just
beat goes on regularly presenting the theme of death and
any sound – this is an all-out love song. It’s full and beautiful
destruction.It’s almost like there’s tension between the
and full of happiness.
regularity of the rhythm and the huge void that the speaker
seems to see in the actual world. 3. Who is singing this happy song?
5. How is the idea of death reintroduced? Ans. A thrush is singing the happy song.
Ans. Hardy uses the word spirits instead of people to show that the 4. What is the state of the bird?
process of germination is destroyed as in the normal way. Ans. The thrush, (like Hardy) is old, weak, and tiny and the only
Rather, the dying century has bred automatons or spirits which heartening thing about the bird is that it somehow manages to
do not have a life of their own. Hardy allows his speaker to exist in all of that feather-ruffling wind. Although frail and
refer to humans-as-ghosts (or ghosts-as-humans) by using puny this bird has managed to do what the speaker has been
one little word: he chooses to use the word “spirit” instead of too scared to do: to forget about the odds and just sing. The
“person”. chances are that the bird won’t be able to do anything to
Stanza 3 make the “growing gloom” one ounce lighter, but it’s willing
Lines 17- 24 to try and it has captured the attention of the fervourless and
doubtful speaker.
At once a voice arose among
Stanza 4
The bleak twigs overhead
Lines 25- 32
In a full-hearted evensong
So little cause for carolings
Of joy illimited;
Of such ecstatic sound
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small,
Was written on terrestrial things
In blast-beruffled plume,
Afar or nigh around,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom. That I could think there trembled through
1. How does Hardy use language and style to show a shift His happy good-night air
in the tone of the poem? Some blessed Hope, of which he knew
Ans. The third stanza marks a significant shift in the poem. Until And I was unaware.
now, the poem seemed to break itself up into four-line chunks 1. What question is raised in the mind of the speaker?
Ans. The speaker although surprised to hear the song of the thrush Assignment
cannot understand the reason for its joy. The world is a dead,
dead, dead place so what could be prompting the bird to 1. Hardy is often criticised for his pessimism. Discuss in
express joy in the dying and depressing land. The speaker the light of the poem The Darkling Thrush.
can’t seem to figure out why the bird wouldn’t match his Ans. There is no doubt that Thomas Hardy’s writings are often
pitch to his surroundings which are so gloomy in contrast. imbued with pessimism, and his poem “The Darkling Thrush”
2. Could the speaker see any reason near or far for the is not an exception. Through the bleakness of the landscape,
bird’s joy? the narrator’s musings on the century’s finale, and the
narrator’s reaction to the songbird, “The Darkling Thrush”
Ans. No, the speaker saw only death and destruction around him reveals Hardy’s preoccupation with time, change, and remorse.
due to the industrialization and urbanization of Britain.
“A Darkling Thrush” opens with a view of a desolate
3. Why is the word hope written in capital? winter landscape. With “spectre-grey” frost covering
Ans. The poet uses personification to show that hope is blessed everything in sight all joyful colours and sounds are smothered
with spirituality. His pessimism here is a refined sense of with an intangible film of bleakness. This gloominess is not to
reality—a sense better captured by the phrase ‘tragic realism’ be dispersed, for the imagery of “Winter’s dregs” suggests
than the word ‘pessimism.’” The tragic realism can be seen that there exists a residue of the year’s melancholy .The
in the speaker’s allowance for the possibility that human tangled bine-stems that scored the sky and “the land’s sharp
change may be possible, but that it is highly improbable. But features” move the miasmal pessimism to a more sharply
he is doubtful as he feels he is still not aware how Christianity defined pain that is intensified with the alliteration in “his crypt
can offer the solution and lead to hope. the cloudy canopy” The “bleak twigs overhead” cast a sharp
image of bars stretching across the sky, embracing the
4. How does Hardy convey that nature is senseless?
gloominess in Hardy’s world. Reflecting the narrator’s sense
Ans. Nature is “senseless,” inasmuch as the song does not arise ofdoom, the dreary landscape mirrors the narrator’s depression
from anything perceived in “terrestrial things.” That is, the and projects his emotions into solid images.
song is not inspired by anything in the immediate scene, or “A Darkling Thrush” depicts the close of one century
anything Hardy might understand as a reason for song. The and the birth of another through the narrator’s eyes. Leaning
frailty of the bird itself, “gaunt and small” with “blastberuffled perhaps wearily on the coppice gate, the narrator observes
plumage,” also militates against any song. how even the people that haunt the land like soulless wanderers
If the thrush is “in the dark,” singing at night, flinging its return to their homes where brightly shine their fires, a symbol
soul into the “growing gloom,” it is also singing for what must of passion and rigour. This sense of retreat and disassociation
remain to humanity decidedly obscure reasons. Whatever is bolstered by Hardy’s use of diction. Archaic terms such as
prompts the bird’s song is not evident to Hardy. The “illimited “coppice gate” and “nigh” as well as archaic inversions of
joy” of the song and “blessed hope” it betokens seem small words such as “seemed fervourless as I” suggest nostalgia
recompense for the pain men and women endure now and for the past and anxiety for the future. The emphasis is on
have endured through the century. endings – the ending of a day, of a year, and of a century.
The “weakening eye of day” and the “growing gloom” extend
their tentacles of melancholy to the crypt of “the Century’s
corpse” This expansiveness reaches back in time as the for his narrator, who sees no hope for the empty society he
“ancient pulse of germ and birth/Was shrunken hard and dry” lives in. Even when he catches a glimpse of cheerfulness
The earth, whose lifeblood is being drained from agricultural from an old thrush, the narrator declares his personal plight
use and from urbanization, is a cause for grief for Thomas excluded from the possible causes of joy. With all signs of
Hardy. He also notes that there is little joy to be found “on hope criticized as being absurd, Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling
terrestrial things” With oppressiveness underscored by the Thrush” conveys a purely pessimistic view.
images of endings and of deaths, Hardy’s pessimistic ideas 2. Discuss examples of irony, satire, and pessimism in
seep through time and space. Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush.”
That music and poetry contributes to Hardy’s melancholy Ans. The mood of pessimism is introduced by a description of the
is evident in the narrator’s reaction to the darkling thrush. The weather as spectre-grey, the sun as weak, the end of winter
poem not only embraces lyricism in its structure, but it mourns as dregs, and the stems as strings of broken musical
the loss of the poet’s artistic abilities in its references to the instruments. In the second stanza the land is pictured as a
“strings of broken lyres” and the wind that sings “his death- corpse and described as shrunken. Hardy’s poem depicts an
lament” When the darkling thrush arrives in a burst of joyous atmosphere of pessimism as he stands at the edge of a
song following a lively enjambment on “At once a voice arose “coppice” facing a desolate landscape towards the end of
among/The bleak twigs overhead” the narrator refuses to be winter. While “all of mankind” is comfortable together beside
comforted. Instead, he takes care to note that it is an “aged their household fires, the speaker is alone in the “haunted
thrush, frail, gaunt, and small/In blast-beruffled plume” night.” The bleak landscape is Hardy’s depiction of the turn
Contrasting the frail bird with its “full-hearted evensong” the of the century, and he describes his pessimistic attitude by
narrator seems to think it absurd that the songbird should commenting “every spirit upon earth Seemed fervourless as
choose to “fling his soul/Upon the growing gloom” Thriving in I.” Scenes of the “cloudy canopy” and the “death-lament” of
his own spiritual winter, the narrator sees “little cause for the wind add to the depressing atmosphere. After hearing the
carolings” Though there are religious connotations in the words joyful song of the “aged thrush,” the speaker again depicts his
“evensong” and “carolings” the narrator does not pursue further pessimistic attitude because he cannot seem to understand
the possibility that God might intervene in his fate, nor does why the bird is so hopeful.
he further probe the “little cause” for hope Alliteration on The irony throughout the poem lies in the fact that the
“That I could think there trembled through” suggests that the thrush is hopeful for no reason. The speaker realizes that
narrator ponders the thrush’s song gravely, keeping in mind there is no reason for the thrush to be joyful in the desolate
his own plight. Concluding that the thrush knows some “blessed environment and does not share the same feelings as the bird.
Hope” of which he is “unaware” the narrator ultimately The satirical nature of the poem concerns Hardy’s pessimistic
dismisses even the smallest cause for hope. The thrush’s views of the 20th century. While many people had optimistic
exuberance seeps into the narrator’s life for a brief moment, views of the future, Hardy sought to recapture a simpler time
revealing to him a life lived to the fullest, yet the narrator before industrialization. The contrast between the thrush
remains unconvinced and melancholy. carolling, and singing of blessed hope and the agnostic narrator
surrounded by misery is intended as ironic.
Submerging “The Darkling Thrush” in a dreary landscape
devoid of life and colour, Thomas Hardy is able to weave 3. What are the subject and themes of the poem “The
pessimism into his work, providing a core of bleak emotions Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy?

Ans. ‘The Darkling Thrush’ is a nature poem by Thomas Hardy, Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
and its subject is the titular bird which raises the narrator’s And I was unaware.
spirits through its singing. The narrator speaks of a frost- The themes therefore change from acceptance of the
bitten landscape, gray and lifeless, and how it makes him feel harder aspects and times in life to embrace of what joys
miserable and depressed. exist; the narrator does not see the reason for that joy but is
The ancient pulse of germ and birth inspired to continue searching for it. Seeing the thrush and its
Was shrunken hard and dry, ability to find and create beauty in a joyless landscape allows
the narrator to embrace what hope he can find in his own
And every spirit upon earth
heart, and through example spread it to others both in action
Seemed fervourless as I. and through the poem itself.
The narrator, despite knowing that seasons pass and that 4. Explain the theme of Chaos and Order in “The Darkling
this cold weather is only temporary, is depressed about the Thrush.”
dead foliage (“ancient pulse of germ and birth”) and the lack Ans. The theme of order and chaos is embedded in Hardy’s poems
of movement and life. Animals and people alike are hiding in in a couple of ways. Firstly, the poem’s structure is in a
their burrows and homes, the first hibernating and the second conventional meter and rhyme. The form of the poem helps
using its control over nature to keep from freezing to death. to provide some level of order to a thematic exploration where
The narrator, being outside, is overcome with the extreme there is only chaos and confusion. There is little in way of
stillness of the world and the lack of reasons to strive and certainty of what the speaker, presumably Hardy, will find in
move (“fervourless spirits”). the future. The poetic construction of the poem is the order
The theme changes from this depression as a single bird through which Hardy is able to explore the chaos that is a
sings to greet the dusk: part of the modern setting.
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, The theme of chaos and order is also seen in the song
of the thrush, itself. The speaker does not know why the
In blast-beruffled plume, brush sings the evening song it sings. There is a beauty
Had chosen thus to fling his soul evident in this moment that the speaker captures. Yet, why
Upon the growing gloom. it does what it does cannot be fully explained. The dissonance
this creates helps to establish the order and chaos theme.
The thrush is the only thing moving and making noise in
Another way of examining the theme in this moment would
the world, and the narrator is overjoyed to see it, his spirits
be in the revealing of the moment itself. In the midst of a
lifted by a seeming reason to hope and to strive. The narrator
world that has lost its connection to a traditional past, the song
is taken by this bird and what he sees as an instinctual drive of the bird reminds the speaker of the order that does in fact
to enjoy life while it lasts; he correlates the bird’s singing not exist. There can be beauty. There can be redemption even
with a deliberate push against the cold and dark, but with an in a setting that might appear devoid of it. In this, there is an
inner joy that it feels compelled to spread regardless of establishment of order in a world of chaos.
circumstance:
Finally, the exposition to the poem also supports the chaos
That I could think there trembled through and order theme. The speaker leans on a gate. The speaker
His happy good-night air 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 has the ability to lean on the gate and
CHAPTER 2
find support in a world where it is absent.
4. Explain Hardy as a nature poet in regards to “The
BIRCHES
Darkling Thrush.”
Ans. Thomas Hardy shows many attributes of the typical English When I see birches bend to left and right
Nature poet in his poem “The Darkling Thrush.” He Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
encapsulates reflection, worries and concerns about Man and I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
his place in the world by alluding to the natural world. The
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
late Victorians worried about political rumblings in Europe and
the changing social order, so Thomas Hardy uses sombre and As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
slightly depressing images in the poem, such as the words Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
“darkling” and “spectre-grey.” The mood and tone are also After a rain. They click upon themselves
very subdued and almost sorrowful evoking an idea of the As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
dying of the century as compared to the dying of the English
year in Nature - the colors are grey and brown like a speckled As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
thrush. Thomas Hardy himself was probably thinking of the Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells
senior years of his life ahead as he wrote the poem in his Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
sixties - he also had sad bereavements and tragedies to deal Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
with.
You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
As a Naturalist, Thomas Hardy employs nature to convey
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
both mood for his works and to convey the Naturalistic
indifference of the universe. In his poem “The Darkling And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
Thrush,” Hardy writes that So low for long, they never right themselves:
The land’s sharp features seemed to be You may see their trunks arching in the woods
The Century’s corpse outleant, Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
His crypt the coudy canopy, Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
The wind his death-lament. Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But, just when the speaker believes that nature shares But I was going to say when Truth broke in
his mood, a darkling thrush appears and sings With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
His happy good-night air I should prefer to have some boy bend them
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
And I was unaware. Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
So, it really is an indifferent universe and nature in its Whose only play was what he found himself,
caprice has a cheerful song, that the speaker does not
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
understand.
One by one he subdued his father’s trees Glossary

By riding them down over and over again
1. birches - forest trees with slender, flexible branches
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left 2. straighter - upright, erect
For him to conquer. He learned all there was 3. bend them down to stay - bent them forever
To learn about not launching out too soon 4. loaded with - covered with the weight of the ice
And so not carrying the tree away 5. they click upon themselves - they make clicking sound as the
ice begins to crack in the sun
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
6. their enamel - the white coating of snow
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup 7. crazes - breaks
Up to the brim, and even above the brim. 8. crystal shells - fragments of shining ice like pieces of broken
glass
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
9. ‘shattering... snow-crust’ - breaking and forming a heap on
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
the snow-covered ground
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
10. withered bracken - dried-up fern
And so I dream of going back to be.
11. right themselves - straighten themselves
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
12. arching - making an arch by bending down
And life is too much like a pathless wood
13. trailing - pulling something behind
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
14. like girls... sun - a beautiful image described through a simile
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
15. Truth broke in - the fact that birches had been bent down by
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
the ice-storm disturbed his fancy
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
16. fetch - go and bring
And then come back to it and begin over.
17. baseball - a game popular in urban areas
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
18. subdued - bent down
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
19. stiffness - hardness
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
20. limp - not stiff or firm
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
21. launching - starting (an activity)
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk 22. poise - balance
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, 23. pains - care
But dipped its top and set me down again. 24. brim - the top edge of a cup
That would be good both going and coming back. 25. flung - thrown
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. 26. swish - swing with a hissing sound
27. considerations - thoughts about wordly troubles About the Poet

28. pathless wood - metaphor for life which is difficult to pass
through Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San
Francisco, where his father, William Prescott Frost Jr., and his
29. cobwebs - symbolic of confusions in life
mother, Isabelle Moodie, had moved from Pennsylvania shortly
30. get away - escape after marrying. After the death of his father from tuberculosis
31. half grant what wish - grant only half of his wish, that of when Frost was eleven years old, he moved with his mother
going up and not of coming down and sister, Jeanie, who was two years younger, to Lawrence,
32. dipped its top - bent down its top Massachusetts. He became interested in reading and writing
33. heaven - an ideal place poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, enrolled at
34. one could... birches - one cannot be better than a swinger of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1892, and
birches later at Harvard University in Boston, though he never earned
a formal college degree.
About the Poem Frost drifted through a string of occupations after leaving
school, working as a teacher, cobbler, and editor of the
It’s interesting that for an iconic American poet, Robert
Lawrence ‘Sentinel’. His first published poem, “My Butterfly,”
Frost didn’t get his start in the US. He had been writing
appeared on November 8, 1894, in the New York newspaper
poetry since he was in high school with mild success. His first
‘The Independent.’
significant publication, “My Butterfly” (1894), came when he
was twenty years old. Frost got married the next year and In 1895, Frost married Elinor Miriam White, whom he’d
began a farming career. Unfortunately, he was not successful shared valedictorian honors with in high school and who was
in agriculture. In 1912, he and his wife went to England. Frost a major inspiration for his poetry until her death in 1938. The
had more success in England as a poet and came back to the couple moved to England in 1912, after they tried and failed
States with two published collections under his belt. at farming in New Hampshire. It was abroad that Frost met
Frost’s 1916 collection, Mountain Interval, contains a good and was influenced by such contemporary British poets as
number of Frost’s greatest hits: “The Road Not Taken,” “The Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke, and Robert Graves.
Oven Bird,” among others. “Birches” published in 1916 is the By the time Frost returned to the United States in 1915,
longest poem in the collection, and through it we get a peek he had published two full-length collections, ‘A Boy’s Will’
into Frost’s developing ideas about what imagination is and (Henry Holt and Company, 1913) and ‘North of Boston’
what it is like to live an imaginative life in a very real world. (Henry Holt and Company, 1914), and his reputation was
Though Robert Frost didn’t live to see internet alternate established. By the 1920s, he was the most celebrated poet
realities, his poem “Birches” features a speaker who escapes in America. Frost served as consultant in poetry to the Library
into the alternate realities of imagination and daydreaming. of Congress from 1958 to 1959.
He raises questions about why we imagine different realities. Though his work is principally associated with the life
Is it because we’re lonely? Is it because we seek to escape and landscape of New England—and though he was a poet
from the demands and responsibilities of everyday life? What
of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained steadfastly
do you think?
aloof from the poetic movements and fashions of his time—
Frost is anything but merely a regional poet. The author of Paraphrase/Explanation

searching and often dark meditations on universal themes, he
is a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to language The speaker is speaking in the first person to an imaginary
as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his audience. Birches are trees with slender trunks and bark that
portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with peels off like paper. They can grow up to 50 feet tall. Because
layers of ambiguity and irony. birches have thin trunks, they bend pretty easily in the wind
and under the weight of snow. Also, some types of birches
About Frost, President John F. Kennedy, at whose have white bark, so they stand out against “straighter darker
inauguration the poet delivered a poem, said, “He has trees.”When the speaker sees the birch trees bent to the
bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which ground, he imagines that a young boy was “swinging them.”
Americans will forever gain joy and understanding.” We can imagine that a birch would be bent a little after the
Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in swinging. Swinging bends the tree down to the ground, but,
Massachusetts and Vermont, and died in Boston on January swinging doesn’t bend the tree enough to cause permanent
29, 1963. damage like an ice-storm can. During an ice-storm, the tree
is covered with freezing rain. The rain coats the tree in a
Summary sheet of ice that is formed during a cold winter night.The
speaker gives a visual of what trees look like after an ice-
A man is walking through the woods, looking at the top storm when the sun reflects off the ice. Not only does this
of the tree line. He sees some trees swaying in the wind and sight of bending birches look beautiful, but a little wind can
he starts to imagine things about the trees. He thinks about bump the ice-covered branches against each other, causing
how the ice covering the trees cracks when they bend. Then clicking sounds. The speaker is involving senses besides sight
he thinks about how heavy ice and snow will bend thin trees (i.e., hearing).This clicking action cracks the ice, but not all
to the ground. He imagines that the arching bends in their the way. A “craze” is a poetic way of describing little cracks.
branches are the result of a boy “swinging” on them. He They might look like veins or a small crack in a windshield
realizes that the bends are actually caused by ice storms - the that resembles a spider web.”Enamel” is a glassy outer surface
weight of the ice on the branches forces them to bend toward on pottery, like a hand-made coffee mug, or tooth enamel.
the ground - but he prefers his idea of the boy swinging on Either way, the word, “enamel,” connotes something that’s
the branches, climbing up the tree trunks and swinging from hard, shiny, and glossy. In this case, the enamel is the coating
side to side, from earth up to heaven. This gets him imagining of ice.
a boy climbing to the top of trees and bending them down When the sun gets hotter during the day, the ice covering
until he can let go and fall safely to the ground. He remembers the trees starts to melt. It doesn’t just melt like snow though.
doing this when he was a kid and wishes that when he felt The ice is “cracked and crazed,” so when it starts to melt, the
trapped in his adult life he could climb trees. This memory bits of ice between those cracks break and fall off the trees.
makes him feel like life isn’t a trap, because his youthful The speaker is using dramatic language. He compares the
imagination can free him at any moment. The narrator wishes breaking ice to shattering crystal and glass that falls like an
that he could return to those carefree days. avalanche. The snow is crusty, because the sun has melted
the top layer of snow the day before and the cold night made
it freeze hard again. The shattered ice collects below the tree
as if it were a pile of glass being swept into a dustpan.”Dome” The speaker imagines the boy going out into his father’s
calls up a number of interesting connotations. Early Judeo- land. The boy “rides” the birch trees down, meaning that the
Christian thinkers believed that the sky was a dome that boy climbs to the top of them until his weight bends the trees
separated heaven and earth. The idea of a dome also brings down to the ground. This is what the speaker wishes was
to mind the ceilings of some cathedrals and churches. The bending the trees instead of the snow and ice.The boy does
falling dome is another allusion: it can be traced to Samuel this so many times on his father’s land that the trees lose their
Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan. The emperor Kubla Khan stiffness and bend towards the ground. It can also be taken
had this icy, heavenly pleasure-dome built. Like all good things, as an example of man conquering nature. The boy starts to
however, it didn’t last. By connecting “Birches” to “Kubla get better about swinging the trees over time. He learns to
Khan,” we might expect “Birches” to be a bittersweet poem, get all the way to the top of the tree and not bend it too soon,
perhaps about other things that don’t last. The trees are bent before he’s reached the top. If he jumped out too soon, the
down under the weight of ice and snow until they reach the tree would be damaged. The boy becomes better at swinging
shrubs and ferns (a.k.a. “bracken”) on the ground below. To the trees. He keeps “his poise,” meaning he stays balanced
the speaker, the birches don’t crack or craze like the ice. and calm, sort of hovering up on a tree branch. The speaker
They bend, rather than break. However, the word “seem” is compares it to filling a cup to the brim. If liquid is poured into
a tip. When the trees are bent down for the entirety of a New a cup, small amount of the liquid is added at a time to keep
England winter, they don’t straighten out afterwards. So, in a it from overflowing. The liquid forms a dome just above the
sense, they’re broken. rim of the cup.
The speaker paints a vivid picture of what these “broken” The boy has filled the metaphorical cup above the brim
trees look like when the snow thaws and their leaves come and has now reached the top of the tree. Next he kicks his
back. The speaker says that the trees look like girls drying feet out (presumably holding onto a branch) and uses the tree
their hair in the sun. These country girls that the speaker like a bungee chord. The tree bends just enough so that the
describes are on their hands and knees, bending their heads boy is lowered to the ground without harm. Here is another
down so that the sun can dry their hair. Here “Truth” is transition. The speaker shifts from a young boy he imagines
associated with “matter-of-fact” in the sense of real-life swinging on a birch tree, to himself as an older man. He
observations about nature or amateur science. That “Truth” seems to reflect on how he isn’t young anymore. Apparently
becomes a part of the discussion shows that the speaker the speaker can imagine this boy swinging trees in such great
might be testing the poetic waters for different ideas about detail because he was once that little boy. He wishes he were
facts, values, science, nature, and spirituality (a.k.a. out there swinging trees like he was a boy again.So all these
metaphysics).First, the country girls, and now he moves on to are memories from his boyhood: conquering nature, girls
the boys. The speaker is wishfully imagining that a boy was sunning themselves, time alone to think about the natural
bending the trees instead of the wind, ice, and snow. He world.The speaker wishes he could be a boy again when he’s
comes up with some details about who the tree-bender might “dreary of considerations.””Considerations” could mean
be. He imagines a boy who herds cows, doesn’t know how thoughtful decision making – an important adult activity. Or
to play baseball, and doesn’t have any friends. The boy lives instead, “considerations” might refer to the give and take of
on an isolated, New England farm and has to work. He has life. Older people have to give up things or pay for things that
to entertain himself year round and so he explores his natural kids don’t. This might be a way for the speaker to lament the
world. fact that his life is now filled with responsibilities. Next the
speaker compares life to “a pathless wood,” meaning it’s Title

easy to get lost when there are no directions provided. The
speaker then describes what happens on a walk through a Originally, this poem was called ‘Swinging Birches,’ a
pathless wood. Sharp branches and spider webs strike in the title that perhaps provides a more accurate depiction of the
face. These are all metaphors for the slings and arrows of subject. In writing this poem, Frost was inspired by his
life.The speaker transitions to the idea that going back to his childhood experience with swinging on birches, which was a
childhood is an escape. He wants to take a vacation from life. popular game for children in rural areas of New England
Whether it’s a vacation from adult life with responsibilities or during the time. Frost’s own children were avid ‘birch
a vacation from the world of the living, is not clear. The idea swingers,’ as demonstrated by a selection from his daughter
that is clear is that he wants a new beginning. He still enjoys Lesley’s journal: ‘On the way home, i climbed up a hi birch
life’s pleasures, and he doesn’t want to die. But he doesn’t and came down with it and i stopt in the air about three
want to be where he is now. feet and pap cout me.’
The speaker seems to make the following disclaimer that In the poem, the act of swinging on birches is presented
if any deity, higher power, etc. hears him wish for a break as a way to escape the hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult
from life, they should not take away his life without ensuring
world, if only for a moment. As the boy climbs up the tree,
his safe return after an agreed upon time. Just in case his
he is climbing toward ‘heaven’ and a place where his
dreary outlook on life is a phase, the speaker says to himself
imagination can be free. A swinger is still grounded in the
that he has no desire to make his vacation from life permanent.
earth through the roots of the tree as he climbs, but he is able
His reason is that he is a lover of life. Anyone who appreciates
to reach beyond his normal life on the earth and reach for a
the sway of trees in the chilling wind loves life. For the
higher plane of existence.
speaker, love is a worldly idea because the world is all he
knows. He recognizes that the world you know is better than Style
an imagined one. This appreciation of life doesn’t mean he
isn’t curious. The speaker still wonders about the limits of life The poem, ‘Birches’is written in blank verse with a
and tests out where life ends and heaven begins. The speaker particular emphasis on the ‘sound of sense.’ For example,
says “I’d like to go by…” Usually people talk like this about when Frost describes the cracking of the ice on the branches,
their own death: “I’d like to go in my sleep.” So it seems like his selections of syllables create a visceral sense of the action
the speaker is saying that he’d like to go to heaven by climbing taking place: ‘Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed
a tree. However then he says “Towards heaven,” so he crystal shells / Shattering and avalanching on the snow
doesn’t actually want to get to heaven just yet. Instead the crust — / Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away…’
speaker wants a peek at heaven from the top of the tree, then Frost writes this poem in blank verse, meaning that it
gently return to his normal life. The speaker is pleased with doesn’t rhyme (sad), but that it does have interesting structure
this resolution. He likes the idea of a vacation from the troubles stuff going on. The poem loosely follows an iambic pentameter
of life, as long as it is only vacation and not a permanent
structure. ‘Iambic’ refers to the pattern of stresses in the line.
situation. The glimpse at the world from a new perspective
An ‘iamb’ is an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed
would be rejuvenating. He concludes, that life’s pleasures
syllable
(like birch swinging) are enough to make life worth living.

Themes The poem could be read as an allegory, but it’s a little too
skeptical for that. The speaker uses ‘Truth’ ironically to express
Youth, like death, is a constant backdrop for many of his skepticism of all belief (including science).
Frost’s poems. The speaker of “Birches” never sees a boy or ‘Birches’ creates a mood of loneliness and isolation. Some
comes across one. He only imagines one, and the boy that he factors that contribute to the mood include the winter weather,
does imagine is himself at a younger age. The boy seems to which seems to cut the speaker off from other people, and
be similar to William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman’s the speaker’s discussion of the boy growing up on an isolated
portrayals of boys. These boys have their own rules and farm. The speaker’s loneliness may be the result of adult
wisdom that they can pass on to the older men and women
concerns and considerations. The speaker’s loneliness is the
around them. They are ready for adventures in nature and
result of the isolating advances of the modern world. The
represent the wild, untamed state of ‘man’ that remains good
speaker’s desire for heaven is a communion with the natural
and moral even though no one is there to govern him.
world, not a desire for isolation.
In ‘Birches,’ Frost incorporates ideas from two similar
traditions. The first is the Romantic tradition, of setting the Setting
characters in Nature. The character (often male) would
embark on adventures or long walks. Sometimes Nature would The setting of “Birches” is not explicitly given. It’s a
challenge him. Other times he would have blissful moments cold New England morning and the snow is almost up to the
and feel one with the natural world. Sometimes these knee. The setting might be in Amherst, Massachusetts (where
interactions with Nature got scary, but the combination of Frost lived), but then again, it might be in another snowy, cold
fear and joy made the character worthy of doing great things. location. A recent ice-storm had left the forest glazed in ice,
The other tradition is the Transcendentalist tradition wherein and the branches of the trees bend under the weight of the
the scary part of Nature was toned down and Nature became ice. The sun has melted the top layer of the snow to the point
a philosophy/religion. This tradition became popular as where it holds your weight for only a second before breaking.
American’s started to explore what was left of America to Most of the forest animals have either migrated or are
explore. This exploration demanded a lot of labor and sacrifice, hibernating, so you don’t see any, and only hear the sounds
so people talked up the idea that it was America’s destiny to of the icy tree branches clicking in the wind.
recruit rugged individuals to live in the middle of nowhere. In
this poem Frost plays around with many of these ideas. Critical Appreciation
‘Birches’ is about the masculine need to dominate the world,
because the boy conquers trees while the girls are represented This poem is written in blank verse with a particular
by conquered trees. The boy has attempted to conquer trees emphasis on the ‘sound of sense.’ For example, when Frost
and see heaven, but the man failed to conquer earthly life. describes the cracking of the ice on the branches, his selections
Robert Frost is not the kind of poet to insert religious of syllables create a visceral sense of the action taking place:
imagery into his poems. A subtle Christian allusion is rare. ‘Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells /
However, the poet writes a lot of meditations on life and Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust — / Such heaps
death, so that always brings in spiritual questions. In of broken glass to sweep away…’
‘Birches,’ Frost mentions ‘heaven’ twice but it is always with Originally, this poem was called ‘Swinging Birches,’ a
a lower-case h and is more suggestive of the sky than paradise. title that perhaps provides a more accurate depiction of the
subject. In writing this poem, Frost was inspired by his up the artwork. The speaker compares the ice to crystal
childhood experience with swinging on birches, which was a shells and enhances the image with descriptive language. The
popular game for children in rural areas of New England imagery of ‘shattering and avalanching’ ice is a vivid sight to
during the time. imagine. This metaphor of cracking ice as shattering crystal
In the poem, the act of swinging on birches is presented is conceptually tied together with broken glass, because the
as a way to escape the hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult two images are so similar.
world, if only for a moment. As the boy climbs up the tree, The broken trees are compared to girls drying their hair
he is climbing toward ‘heaven’ and a place where his in the sun. This simile shows how the imagination can carry
imagination can be free. The narrator explains that climbing the speaker and reader away.
a birch is an opportunity to ‘get away from earth awhile / And ‘Truth’ breaks into the poem, but the speaker is probably
then come back to it and begin over.’ A swinger is still being ironic. The truths we’ve come across aren’t so matter
grounded in the earth through the roots of the tree as he of fact. Instead they are imaginative ideas inspired by the
climbs, but he is able to reach beyond his normal life on the ‘facts’ of nature. This simile compares life to an overgrown
earth and reach for a higher plane of existence. forest. It’s hard to tell what direction you’re going when you
Frost highlights the narrator’s regret that he can now no can’t find a path and end up getting poked in the eye by a
longer find this peace of mind from swinging on birches. twig.
Because he is an adult, he is unable to leave his responsibilities The boy in the poem is imaginary. Unlike the ice-storm
behind and climb toward heaven until he can start fresh on that leaves its traces, the speaker only imagines the boy. The
the earth. In fact, the narrator is not even able to enjoy the speaker imagines the boy as a younger version of himself.
imagined view of a boy swinging in the birches. In the fourth We learn that the boy represents the specific time in the
line of the poem, he is forced to acknowledge the ‘Truth’ of speaker’s life that was filled with simple pleasures, adventures
the birches: the bends are caused by winter storms, not by a in nature, and idle hours.
boy swinging on them. The imaginary boy lives in a ‘pastoral’ world, meaning
Significantly, the narrator’s desire to escape from the that he is closely tied with animals and spends most of his
rational world is inconclusive. He wants to escape as a boy time happily playing in nature.
climbing toward heaven, but he also wants to return to the The boy is also a metaphor for the rugged, American
earth: both ‘going and coming back.’ The freedom of individual. He has struck out into the land that is his by birthright
imagination is appealing and wondrous, but the narrator still and conquered anything there was to conquer. This individual
cannot avoid returning to ‘Truth’ and his responsibilities on the often stands as a metonymy for America’s Manifest Destiny
ground; the escape is only a temporary one. towards the continent (and world).
Many poets, Frost included, like to play with the
The boy learns moderation and sensitivity towards his
differences between appearances and observable facts. The
natural environment. His mastery of nature does not create a
speaker calls the ice coating the trees enamel. Usually enamel
large “footprint.”
refers to the glossy and glassy coating around pottery. Pottery
is considered art, but are trees art? The poet has painted a Frost writes this poem in blank verse, meaning that it
pretty picture of the trees, but now the image ‘cracks and doesn’t rhyme (sad), but that it does have interesting structure.
crazes.’ The scientific reality of the sun and wind has broken The poem loosely follows an iambic pentameter structure.

‘Iambic’refers to the pattern of stresses in the line. An ‘iamb’ tree as he climbs, but he is able to reach beyond his normal
is an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. life on the earth and reach for a higher plane of existence.
Although Frost wrote some formal and conservative verse, Birches are trees with slender trunks and bark that peels
he’s not known for that kind of poetry. Rather, Frost earned off like paper. They can grow up to 50 feet tall. Because
critical and popular attention for his verse written in blank and birches have thin trunks, they bend pretty easily in the wind
free verse. He liked to imitate the sound of regular or rural and under the weight of snow. Also, some types of birches
speech. have white bark, so they stand out against ‘straighter darker
trees.’ When the speaker sees the birch trees bent to the
Comprehension ground, he imagines that a young boy was “swinging them.”
Lines 1-9 We can imagine that a birch would be bent a little after the
swinging. Swinging bends the tree down to the ground, but,
When I see birches bend to left and right swinging doesn’t bend the tree enough to cause permanent
Across the lines of straighter darker trees, damage like an ice-storm can. During an ice-storm, the tree
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. is covered with freezing rain. The rain coats the tree in a
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay sheet of ice that is formed during a cold winter night. The
speaker gives a visual of what trees look like after an ice-
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them storm when the sun reflects off the ice. Not only does this
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning sight of bending birches look beautiful, but a little wind can
After a rain […] bump the ice-covered branches against each other, causing
[…] They click upon themselves clicking sounds. The speaker is involving senses besides sight
(i.e., hearing).This clicking action cracks the ice, but not all
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
the way.
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel
2. What does the word enamel mean in this context?
Read the extract given above and answer the questions Ans. Enamel is a glassy outer surface on pottery, like a hand-made
that follow. coffee mug, or tooth enamel. Either way, the word, “enamel,”
1. Explain the given lines with reference to context. connotes something that’s hard, shiny, and glossy. In this case,
Ans. These lines have been taken from the poem, ‘The Birches’ the enamel is the coating of ice.
written by Robert Frost. The poet seeing the birch trees is 3. What does an ice storm do to the Birches?
reminded of the childhood game of swinging on the branches Ans. During an ice-storm, the tree is covered with freezing rain.
of those same birch trees, or similar ones. The poem “Birches”, The rain coats the tree in a sheet of ice that is formed during
along with other poems that deal with rural landscape and a cold winter night. The ice –storm causes permanent damage
wildlife, shows Frost as a nature poet. In the poem, the act and bends the Birches.
of swinging on birches is presented as a way to escape the Lines 10-16
hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult world, if only for a
moment. As the boy climbs up the tree, he is climbing toward Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells
‘heaven’ and a place where his imagination can be free. A Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust—
swinger is still grounded in the earth through the roots of the Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away

You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. Judeo-Christian thinkers believed that the sky was a dome
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, that separated heaven and earth. The idea of a dome also
brings to mind the ceilings of some cathedrals and churches.
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
The falling dome is another allusion: it can be traced to
So low for long, they never right themselves: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan. The emperor Kubla
Read the extract given above and answer the questions Khan had this icy, heavenly pleasure-dome built. Like all good
that follow. things, however, it didn’t last. By connecting “Birches” to
1. Explain the given lines with reference to context. “Kubla Khan,” we might expect “Birches” to be a bittersweet
Ans. These lines have been taken from the poem, ‘The Birches’ poem, perhaps about other things that don’t last. The trees
written by Robert Frost. The poet seeing the birch trees is are bent down under the weight of ice and snow until they
reminded of the childhood game of swinging on the branches reach the shrubs and ferns (a.k.a. “bracken”) on the ground
of those same birch trees, or similar ones. The poem “Birches”, below. The birches don’t crack or craze like the ice. They
along with other poems that deal with rural landscape and bend, rather than break. However, when the trees are bent
wildlife, shows Frost as a nature poet. In the poem, the act down for the entirety of a New England winter, they don’t
straighten out afterwards. So, in a sense, they’re broken.
of swinging on birches is presented as a way to escape the
hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult world, if only for a 3. Explain the allusion of the dome in reference to the
moment. As the boy climbs up the tree, he is climbing toward dome in the poem Kubla Khan
‘heaven’ and a place where his imagination can be free. A Ans. The falling dome is an allusion: it can be traced to Samuel
swinger is still grounded in the earth through the roots of the Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan
tree as he climbs, but he is able to reach beyond his normal That with music loud and long,
life on the earth and reach for a higher plane of existence.
I would build that dome in air,
When the sun gets hotter during the day, the ice covering
the trees starts to melt. It doesn’t just melt like snow though. That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
The ice is “cracked and crazed,” so when it starts to melt, the And all who heard should see them there,
bits of ice between those cracks break and fall off the trees. And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
The speaker compares the breaking ice to shattering crystal The emperor Kubla Khan had this icy, heavenly pleasure-
and glass that falls like an avalanche. The snow is crusty, dome built. Like all good things, however, it didn’t last.By
because the sun has melted the top layer of snow the day connecting “Birches” to “Kubla Khan,” we might expect
before and the cold night made it freeze hard again. The “Birches” to be a bittersweet poem, perhaps about other things
shattered ice collects below the tree as if it were a pile of that don’t last.
glass being swept into a dustpan. The birches don’t crack or
Lines17-27
craze like the ice. They bend, rather than break. However,
the word “seem” is a tip. When the trees are bent down for You may see their trunks arching in the woods
the entirety of a New England winter, they don’t straighten Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
out afterwards. So, in a sense, they’re broken. Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
2. Explain ‘the inner dome of heaven had fallen.’ Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
Ans. ‘Dome’ calls up a number of interesting connotations. Early But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm, farm and has to work. He has to entertain himself year round
I should prefer to have some boy bend them and so he explores his natural world.
As he went out and in to fetch the cows— 2. What does the poet mean by truth in this context?
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, Ans. Here “Truth” is associated with “matter-of-fact” in the sense
of real-life observations about nature or amateur science.
Whose only play was what he found himself,
That ‘Truth’ becomes a part of the discussion shows that the
Summer or winter, and could play alone. speaker might be testing the poetic waters for different ideas
Read the extract given above and answer the questions about facts, values, science, nature, and spirituality (a.k.a.
that follow. metaphysics).
1. Explain the given lines with reference to context. 3. Who according to the poet is bending the birches?
Ans. These lines have been taken from the poem, ‘The Birches’ Ans. The poet wishfully imagines that a boy was bending the trees
written by Robert Frost. The poet seeing the birch trees is instead of the wind, ice, and snow. He comes up with some
reminded of the childhood game of swinging on the branches details about who the tree-bender might be. He imagines a
of those same birch trees, or similar ones. The poem “Birches”, boy who herds cows, doesn’t know how to play baseball, and
along with other poems that deal with rural landscape and doesn’t have any friends. The boy lives on an isolated, New
wildlife, shows Frost as a nature poet. In the poem, the act England farm and has to work. He has to entertain himself
of swinging on birches is presented as a way to escape the year round and so he explores his natural world.
hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult world, if only for a Lines 28- 38
moment. As the boy climbs up the tree, he is climbing toward
One by one he subdued his father’s trees
‘heaven’ and a place where his imagination can be free. A
swinger is still grounded in the earth through the roots of the By riding them down over and over again
tree as he climbs, but he is able to reach beyond his normal Until he took the stiffness out of them,
life on the earth and reach for a higher plane of existence. And not one but hung limp, not one was left
The speaker paints a vivid picture of what these ‘broken’ For him to conquer […]
trees look like when the snow thaws and their leaves come […] He learned all there was
back. The speaker says that the trees look like girls drying
their hair in the sun. These country girls that the speaker To learn about not launching out too soon
describes are on their hands and knees, bending their heads And so not carrying the tree away
down so that the sun can dry their hair. Here “Truth” is Clear to the ground […]
associated with “matter-of-fact” in the sense of real-life […] He always kept his poise
observations about nature or amateur science. First, the country
girls, and now he moves on to the boys. The speaker is
wishfully imagining that a boy was bending the trees instead With the same pains you use to fill a cup
of the wind, ice, and snow. He comes up with some details Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
about who the tree-bender might be. He imagines a boy who Read the extract given above and answer the questions
herds cows, doesn’t know how to play baseball, and doesn’t that follow.
have any friends. The boy lives on an isolated, New England 1. Explain the given lines with reference to context.
Ans. These lines have been taken from the poem, ‘The Birches’ before he’s reached the top. If he jumped out too soon, the
written by Robert Frost. The poet seeing the birch trees is tree would be damaged.
reminded of the childhood game of swinging on the branches 3. What comparison does the speaker make of the balance
of those same birch trees, or similar ones. The poem “Birches”, of the boy?
along with other poems that deal with rural landscape and Ans. The speaker compares the calm and balance of the boy while
wildlife, shows Frost as a nature poet. In the poem, the act bending the trees to the filling a cup to the brim with liquid
of swinging on birches is presented as a way to escape the without spilling it. When liquid is poured into a cup, small
hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult world, if only for a amount of the liquid is added at a time to keep it from
moment. As the boy climbs up the tree, he is climbing toward overflowing. The liquid forms a dome just above the rim of
‘heaven’ and a place where his imagination can be free. A the cup.
swinger is still grounded in the earth through the roots of the Lines 39-49
tree as he climbs, but he is able to reach beyond his normal
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
life on the earth and reach for a higher plane of existence.
Kicking his was down through the air to the ground.
The speaker imagines the boy going out into his father’s
land. The boy ‘rides’the birch trees down, meaning that the So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
boy climbs to the top of them until his weight bends the trees And so I dream of going back to be.
down to the ground. This is what the speaker wishes was It’s when I’m dreary of considerations,
bending the trees instead of the snow and ice. The boy does And life is too much like a pathless wood
this so many times on his father’s land that the trees lose their Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
stiffness and bend towards the ground. It can also be taken
as an example of man conquering nature. The boy starts to
get better about swinging the trees over time. He learns to From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
get all the way to the top of the tree and not bend it too soon, I’d like to get away from earth awhile
before he’s reached the top. If he jumped out too soon, the And then come back to it and begin over.
tree would be damaged. The boy becomes better at swinging Read the extract given above and answer the questions
the trees. He keeps ‘his poise,’ meaning he stays balanced that follow.
and calm, sort of hovering up on a tree branch. The speaker
1. Explain the given lines with reference to context.
compares it to filling a cup to the brim. If liquid is poured into
Ans. These lines have been taken from the poem, ‘The Birches’
a cup, small amount of the liquid is added at a time to keep
written by Robert Frost. The poet seeing the birch trees is
it from overflowing. The liquid forms a dome just above the
reminded of the childhood game of swinging on the branches
rim of the cup.
of those same birch trees, or similar ones. The poem “Birches”,
2. Explain the use of the word poise in the following line, along with other poems that deal with rural landscape and
‘He always kept his poise.’ wildlife, shows Frost as a nature poet. In the poem, the act
Ans. He keeps ‘his poise,’ meaning he stays balanced and calm, of swinging on birches is presented as a way to escape the
sort of hovering up on a tree branch. The boy learns to get hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult world, if only for a
all the way to the top of the tree and not bend it too soon, moment. As the boy climbs up the tree, he is climbing toward

‘heaven’ and a place where his imagination can be free. A 3. Explain the metaphorical use of ‘pathless woods.’
swinger is still grounded in the earth through the roots of the Ans. The speaker compares life to “a pathless wood,” meaning it’s
tree as he climbs, but he is able to reach beyond his normal easy to get lost when there are no directions provided. The
life on the earth and reach for a higher plane of existence. speaker then describes what happens on a walk through a
The boy has filled the metaphorical cup above the brim pathless wood. Sharp branches and spider webs strike in the
and has now reached the top of the tree. Next he kicks his face. These are all metaphors for the slings and arrows of
feet out (presumably holding onto a branch) and uses the tree life. The speaker transitions to the idea that going back to his
like a bungee chord. The tree bends just enough so that the childhood is an escape. He wants to take a vacation from life.
boy is lowered to the ground without harm. Here is another Lines 50-59
transition. The speaker shifts from a young boy he imagines May no fate willfully misunderstand me
swinging on a birch tree, to himself as an older man. He
seems to reflect on how he isn’t young anymore. Apparently
the speaker can imagine this boy swinging trees in such great Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
detail because he was once that little boy. He wishes he were I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
out there swinging trees like he was a boy again. So all these I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
are memories from his boyhood: conquering nature, girls And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
sunning themselves, time alone to think about the natural world.
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
The speaker compares life to “a pathless wood,” meaning it’s
easy to get lost when there are no directions provided. The But dipped its top and set me down again.
speaker then describes what happens on a walk through a That would be good both going and coming back.
pathless wood. Sharp branches and spider webs strike in the One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
face. These are all metaphors for the slings and arrows of Read the extract given above and answer the questions
life. The speaker transitions to the idea that going back to his that follow.
childhood is an escape. He wants to take a vacation from life.
1. Explain the given lines with reference to context.
Whether it’s a vacation from adult life with responsibilities or
a vacation from the world of the living, is not clear. The idea Ans. These lines have been taken from the poem, ‘The Birches’
that is clear is that he wants a new beginning. He still enjoys written by Robert Frost. The poet seeing the birch trees is
life’s pleasures, and he doesn’t want to die. But he doesn’t reminded of the childhood game of swinging on the branches
want to be where he is now. of those same birch trees, or similar ones. The poem ‘Birches’,
along with other poems that deal with rural landscape and
2. Explain ‘It’s when I’m dreary of considerations.’
wildlife, shows Frost as a nature poet. In the poem, the act
Ans. The speaker wishes he could be a boy again when he’s ‘dreary of swinging on birches is presented as a way to escape the
of considerations.’ ‘Considerations’could mean thoughtful hard rationality or ‘Truth’ of the adult world, if only for a
decision making – an important adult activity. Or instead, moment. As the boy climbs up the tree, he is climbing toward
‘considerations’ might refer to the give and take of life. Older ‘heaven’ and a place where his imagination can be free. A
people have to give up things or pay for things that kids don’t. swinger is still grounded in the earth through the roots of the
This might be a way for the speaker to lament the fact that tree as he climbs, but he is able to reach beyond his normal
his life is now filled with responsibilities. life on the earth and reach for a higher plane of existence.
The speaker seems to make the following disclaimer that Assignment

if any deity, higher power, etc. hears him wish for a break
from life, they should not take away his life without ensuring 1. In Robert Frost’s ‘Birches,’ two strong similes give the
his safe return after an agreed upon time. Just in case his poem a richness that is both imaginative and the result
dreary outlook on life is a phase, the speaker says to himself of close observation. What are the similes?
that he has no desire to make his vacation from life permanent. Ans. Robert Frost often includes natural imagery in his poems. His
His reason is that he is a lover of life. Anyone who appreciates intent is usually to show how closely man is bound to the
the sway of trees in the chilling wind loves life. For the natural environment in which he lives.
speaker, love is a worldly idea because the world is all he The first simile in the poem, ‘like girls on hands and knees’:
knows. He recognizes that the world you know is better than You may see their trunks arching in the woods
an imagined one. This appreciation of life doesn’t mean he
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
isn’t curious. The speaker still wonders about the limits of life
and tests out where life ends and heaven begins. The speaker Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
says ‘I’d like to go by…’Usually people talk like this about Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
their own death: ‘I’d like to go in my sleep.’ So it seems like Part of Frost’s aim has been to show that the birches are
the speaker is saying that he’d like to go to heaven by climbing vulnerable to the effect of ‘swinging’ by boys. This vulnerability
a tree. The speaker wants a peek at heaven from the top of is emphasized by comparing them to girls—the trees are
the tree, then gently return to his normal life. He likes the idea delicate, like the girls, but also beautiful in their way.
of a vacation from the troubles of life, as long as it is only The second simile comes about two-thirds through the
vacation and not a permanent situation. The glimpse at the poem. The poem has evolved by this point—Frost has become
world from a new perspective would be rejuvenating. He more serious. In this simile, ‘like a pathless wood,’ Frost is
concludes, that life’s pleasures (like birch swinging) are enough saying that sometimes life becomes difficult, filled with worries
to make life worth living. and decisions that have no clear answer:
2. Does the speaker make a death wish? It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
Ans. No, the speaker does not want to die. He only wants a vacation And life is too much like a pathless wood
from his life of responsibilities for a short while. Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
3. What does the line ‘towards heaven connote’? Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
Ans. When the speaker says ‘Towards heaven,’ he doesn’t actually From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
want to get to heaven just yet. Instead the speaker wants a
He uses the simile to compare the physical pain of being
peek at heaven from the top of the tree, then gently return to
cut by a twig to the distress caused by life’s cares, and goes
his normal life. The speaker is pleased with this resolution. so far as to suggest he would like to ‘get away from Earth
He likes the idea of a vacation from the troubles of life, as awhile.’
long as it is only vacation and not a permanent situation. The
glimpse at the world from a new perspective would be 2. What are some literary and figurative devices used in
‘Birches’ by Robert Frost?
rejuvenating. He concludes, that life’s pleasures (like birch
swinging) are enough to make life worth living. Ans. Robert Frost’s ‘Birches’ is a poem of fifty-nine lines without
any stanza breaks, a condition that indicates the simultaneous
flow of imagination with the vision of reality. Frost’s poem Ans. Another theme of ‘Birches’ is the interrelationship between
has as its controlling metaphor that the real world stimulates imagination and reality. The boy’s/man’s reality mirrors the
the world of the imagination. In order to express this controlling movement of the birches in Frost’s ‘Birches.’ He likes to
idea, Frost employs figurative langauge:In the first fifteen lines think of the bent birches as having been swung upon by a boy
Frost uses the metaphor of a boy swinging the limbs of the who subdued them just as he did when
birch tree for what nature really does. The poet describes the [H]e learned all there was
tree limbs in the winter with imagery ‘Loaded with ice,’ that
To learn about not launching out too soon
cracks and ‘crazes their enamel.’ The use of the word enamel
is also metaphoric, comparing the bark to enamel. The snow And so not carrying the tree away
is metaphorically compared to ‘broken glass’ that is swept Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
away. There is personification given to the birches that ‘never To the top branches, climbing carefully....
right themselves’ and ‘trailing their leaves on the ground.’ Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,....
Lines 18, 19, and 20 contain a simile: And then the speaker reflects that like the boy, he, too, was
Trailing their leaves on the ground ...once myself a swinger of birches,
Like girls on hands and kees that throw their hair And so I dream of going back to be.
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. This ‘swinger of birches’ is a metaphor for the person of
There is another simile in : imagination and youthful spirit. The speaker may have become
And life is too much like a pathless wood sidetracked by obligations and the tedium of daily life, yet he
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs longs for the flights of fancy that he once enjoyed as a boy,
the carefree swinging on the branches of the birches in which
There is Personification in line 21 as
his imagination delighted and his spirit was free, not ‘weary
Truth broke in of considerations’ for his mundane existence.
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice storm ‘One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.’
More imagery appears in lines 55 That is, one who can move back and forth between reality
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk and imagination is, perhaps, the most content with his life
because the carefree joy balances with the ‘considerations’
Alliteration recurs throughout the poem:
that must be attended to in his daily life. ‘Birches’ takes a
Soon the sin’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells look at the interaction between nature and man. In this case,
(repetition of /s/ we have a grown man, the narrator, telling the reader that he
To learn about not launching out too soon. /t/ recalls what it was like to swing on birch trees when he was
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more /t/ young. As an adult, he knows that birch trees are bowed
because of the ice that bent their trunks in the winter, but he
That would be good both going and coming back /g/
prefers to think that, like he did as a youngster, ‘some boy’s
Frost uses his metaphor of one’s being a ‘swinger of birches’ been swinging them.’ The memory of birch swinging is a
as one who uses creative imagination. release from the cares and trials of adult life, a sort of freedom
3. What is the summary and main theme of “Birches” by that takes him back in time. When Frost describes the problems
Robert Frost? associated with adult life, he continues to use natural imagery:
It’s when I’m weary of considerations, 4. In ‘Birches’ to what does the speaker compare trees
And life is too much like a pathless wood that are bent low for so long that they never completely
right themselves?
Ans. The speaker knows that it is the ice that made the tree limbs
bend, but prefers other possibilities and/or metaphors:
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
Thus, as we grow, play and adventure is replaced with
With all her matter of fact about the ice storm,
pain, danger, and weariness.
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
Frost concludes with something of an understatement in
the poem’s final line: Frost also compares the bent branches to girls’ hair as
they are bent over, drying their hair in the sun. Being bent
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. over with their hair falling towards the ground (as the branches
This emphasizes Frost’s point that interacting with nature bend toward the ground) does suggest a bending to nature’s
in a playful way is actually more rewarding than the or someone’ will. This image is of girls in a subdued or even
responsibilities that accompany adult life. submissive position. This poem is more often interpreted as a
In ‘Birches’ we might say that the theme is something metaphor for the imagination and nostalgia.
like ‘the memory of the joy of youth is a relief from the cares The speaker ‘prefers’ the idea of the boy swinging on
of adult life.’ Or, if one preferred to work the idea of nature the birches as opposed to the reality of the ice bringing the
into a theme, we might say, ‘The interaction of man and branches down. He prefers his imagination, the metaphor.
nature imbues our lives with more meaning than the When life is difficult, he prefers to imagine he is, nostalgically,
expectations of society.’ like a boy swinging on birches. Through the imagination, he
‘Birches’ by Robert Frost is more than a nostalgic picture can get away from daily life. Frost uses this idea of climbing
of boyhood play. From line 43 on, the poem develops a the tree to illustrate how to ‘get away from the earth awhile.’
flamboyant metaphor. The poem’s theme can be: ‘While there The imagining of the metaphor is a way to get away from
are times when the speaker would ‘like to get away from daily life on earth; and the image itself, climbing the tree, is
earth awhile,’ his aspiration for escape to something ‘larger’ a literal illustration of getting away from daily life on earth,
is safely controlled by the recognition that birch trees will only even moving towards another plane of existence: heaven.
bear so much climbing before returning you, under the pressure Once he’s had this mental escape, the branches bend
of human weight, back home.’ back down, delivering him back to his daily life. In this respect,
One line in ‘Birches,’ stands out more than the rest, the the branches (birches) are the means of this escape, the
line about feeling lost in the woods, facing too many decisions means of imagination, because they take him (or the boy)
about which way to go. He points out on several occasions: away from the earth.
‘It’s when I’m weary of considerations’ . The birch tree can 5. With reference to “Birches” by Robert Frost, what does
be seen as a path toward heaven fraught with risk, suspense, being a swinger of birches symbolize for the speaker?
even a kind of terror. The climbing boy performs his act of Ans. Frost’s ‘Birches’ articulates the gap between the hopeful
birch-bending gracefully, but in doing so goes almost too far, aspirations intrinsic to human identity and the crushing weight
like one filling a cup ‘even above the brim.’ of reality that also defines what it means to be an individual

in the modern setting. For Frost, being a ‘swinger of birches’ which is capable of living in a world of joy and happiness,
symbolizes a happier and ‘lighter’ time in one’s being. When even if the weight of one’s being is a reality where the
Frost sees the bent of the birch trees, he recognizes that such individual ‘grows weary of considerations.’ It is in this point
a natural vision could be a result of a boy who enjoyed where being a ‘swinger of birches’ embodies the optimism
swinging on birch trees. For Frost, being a swinger of birches and restoration that is possible in human identity. Being a
reflects purity, joy, and a sense of exhilaration in terms of ‘swinger of birches’ symbolizes the individual’s capacity to
what it means to be a human being. show what can be in the midst of what is. In this
Frost speaks about what it means to be a bender of transformative element, being a swinger of birches holds much
birches as ‘some boy too far from town to learn baseball.’ in way of meaning and importance to the construction of
The boy’s embrace of swinging of birches was an activity one’s identity.
where ‘he could play alone.’ Frost shows that the boy who 6. What is the tone of ‘Birches’?
is a swinger of birches ‘conquered’ the birch trees, and Ans. Literary critic Jeffrey Hart terms ‘Birches’ a ‘Frostian
‘learned all there was/ To learn about not launching out too manifesto’ because of the poem’s skeptical tone regarding
soon.’ Frost articulates a certain skill that the swinger of spiritual matters. In fact, critics feel that this poem is a
birches must possess: precursor of the tone of poems that followed in which he
He learned all there was adopts the voice of the Yankee farmer. In ‘Birches’ the speaker
To learn about not launching out too soon longs for the days of his youth and the flights of imagination
And so not carrying the tree away that it provided. But, the poem becomes more melancholy as
the speaker’s introspection emerges with the word ‘Truth’ in
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
line 21.
He returns to his flights of fancy of youth and its
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
innocence and creativity as, perhaps, the means of finding
Up to the brim, and even above the brim. ‘Truth.’
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish, So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. And so I dream of going back to be.
Frost combines the joy intrinsic to being a swinger of It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
birches with the masterful grasp of technique, where the boy
And life is too much like a pathless wood...
‘learned all there was’ and ‘always kept his poise.’ He
describes this technique as one who is fully immersed in life I’d like to get away from earth awhile
as the activity brings happiness and joy in one’s consciousness. And then come back to it and begin over.
The speaker of the poem confesses that he, too, was Frost’s final line confirms his belief in the wisdom and
once ‘a swinger of birches.’ This helps to articulate the full ‘Truth’ of nature: ‘One could do worse than be a swinger
meaning of being a swinger of birches, in terms of it of birches.’ For, he was willing to test the limits, to extend
representing a state of being in the world. When Frost ends himself as well as the trees. ‘Birches’ is a poem with much
the poem with ‘One could do worse than be a swinger of tension between imagination and reality, between the choices
birches,’ it speaks to how there is a part of human identity to be made in what may seem like a pathless wood.
7. What effect do ice-storms have on birch trees in the surging upward toward the sun, stretch along the ground for
poem ‘Birches’ by Robert Frost? that same nourishment, a stance which, like the girls on hands
Ans. In the poem ‘Birches’ by Robert Frost, the speaker is reminded and knees, is merely another natural interpretation of their
of his own childhood, living ‘too far away from town for own range of motion.
baseball,’ amusing himself by swinging down to the ground 8. In Robert Frost’s ‘Birches,’ how is climbing birches a
from the tops of birch trees. He recalls this memory fondly, metaphor for life?
and upon seeing birches with their trunks bent low, he says, Ans. ‘Birches’ is a very complex poem subject to many
‘I like to think some boy’s been swinging them,’ as he interpretations. It is characterized by antitheses, including
himself used to do. But no boy has been there, for ‘Swinging imagination/reality and youth/adulthood. In surveying birch trees
doesn’t bend them down to stay/As ice storms do.’ So we that have been bent to the ground, the narrator likes to imagine
know that an ice storm is the culprit for the current that they were ridden down by a boy at play. He knows,
configuration of the birches. Frost describes what happens to however, that in reality they were brought to the ground by
birches in an ice storm with as much nostalgia as he does his an ice storm. Having acknowledged this truth, he returns to
own swinging, another indication that birches – and by his imaginary boy and takes delight in the boy’s joy and
extension nature in general – played a large role in the expertise as he learns to ‘[kick] his way down through the air
speaker’s upbringing. When there is ice on the birches after to the ground.’
a rain, he says,
This joy of youth is soon contrasted with the realities of
…They click upon themselves adult life as Frost writes these lines:
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
And so I dream of going back to be.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Here we get sensory imagery: the sound of the ice
clicking and cracking as the wind sways the trees, the feel of
the warm sun, which we can contrast with the chill of the air Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
suggested by the snow; the shifts in color caused by the From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
cracking and the resplendent sparkle of thousands of shards I’d like to get away from earth awhile
of ice finally released to fall onto the ground below the And then come back to it and begin over.
branches. And during this whole enchanting process, the birch
trees are being pulled all the way to the ground by the load. ‘Birches,’ then, become metaphorical for these antithetical
And so, after bearing their icy burden for hours on end, the stages of life: the joy and freedom of youth contrasted with
birches do not bounce back once the ice has melted, and the struggles, burdens, and ‘wounds’ of adulthood. In Frost’s
instead are bent permanently toward the earth, ‘trailing their poem, youth is much to be preferred: ‘One could do worse
leaves on the ground/Like girls on hands and knees that than be a swinger of birches.’
throw their hair/Over before them to dry in the sun.’ The 9. In ‘Birches,’ why do the birch trees remind the speaker
birches remain forever bowed, and their leaves, instead of of childhood games?

Ans. “When I see birches bend to left and right necessary incompleteness of inductive knowledge.
Across the lines of straighter darker trees, The first ambiguity Frost addresses is the cause of the
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. bent birches. He knows by induction that boys can bend birches
by swinging on them and first uses this information to
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
extrapolate that the bent birches he sees were bent by repeated
As ice storms do.” use by a boy. Next, he realizes that in fact boys’ swinging
In the opening lines of the poem, the birch trees remind would not cause birches to stay bent. He notes:
the speaker of the childhood game of swinging on the branches But I was going to say when Truth broke in
of those same birch trees, or similar ones. It’s because heavy
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
ice from a storm has built up on the branches so much that
they are actually bent downward, much like the speaker I should prefer to have some boy bend them ...
himself would bend those branches as a child when he played In these lines, he presents an understanding of how we
on them and his weight caused them to bend think about causation. We tend to personify causes and think
downward. However, the difference, is that the ice has caused about humans (and human intention and design) as explaining
the branches to stay bent permanently, while when he played natural phenomena, whether literally or by analogy, but this is
on the branches as a kid, the speaker only temporarily caused actually an artifact of our own desire for explanation on our
the branches to be bent. own terms. What makes nature ambiguous is that it does not
This difference doesn’t matter too much, though, because function in human terms and thus we cannot fully understand
as soon as the poet has made that connection between ice- it. Instead nature exists at the intersection of Heaven (a
laden branches and his childhood adventures on similar trees, mysterious divine will) and earth (the nature we perceive
a host of memories has appeared, and the poem unfurls from around us) and acts as an intermediary between the divine
there. The speaker goes on to talk about how thrilling it was and human, something symbolized by the birch tree which lets
to leap from the trunk of the tree onto a branch, and he the poet (metaphorically) repeatedly reach up to heaven and
considers that activity in retrospect, with a thoughtful adult’s return to earth in the lines:
ability to analyze that childhood activity and what it reveals And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
about life. Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
The poem’s structure can be understood, then, by noticing But dipped its top and set me down again.
that it follows a common pattern: the speaker sees something,
12. Discuss the theme about life and death in the poem,?
it reminds him of something from the past, and he goes on to
juxtapose past and present and thereby discover new insights. Ans. The central theme has to do with the differences between
and the blending together of reality and imagination. The
10. How is ambiguity in nature a metaphor for ambiguity in
speaker acknowledges that the birch branches hang low
human experience in ‘Birches’?
because of the ice weighing them down. But he imagines
Ans. In ‘Birches’ the central ambiguity is not in nature itself but in they sag because boys have been swinging on them. He uses
human understanding of nature. Critics argue that just as we other similes and metaphors to describe the swinging and
see ambiguities and things we cannot explain in nature, so too sagging of the branches and this is all an exercise of the
religious truths can often seem ambiguous and mysterious. imagination. When he says, ‘So was I once myself a swinger
This is due not to religion or science being false, but to the of birches,’ he is being literal and figurative. He may have
actually been a swinger of birches, but he also has been and I’d like to get away from earth awhile
continues to be someone who uses his imagination to ‘get And then come back to it and begin over.
away from the earth awhile.’
When he was young, swinging on the trees was simply
This idea of ‘getting away from the earth awhile’ is a a matter of play. As an older man, and more reflective, he
way of describing the imagination. The speaker loves that life sees the practice of swinging in more philosophical terms. He
enables one to escape into the world of imagination but always wants to ‘get away’ from the earth for a while, but then he
comes back down to earth/reality. He likes to escape but also wants to come back and repeat the process. This idea of
needs to come back because ‘Earth’s the right place for getting away could be something as simple (and abstract) as
love: I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.’ daydreaming or living in one’s imagination.
Literally and figuratively, as he swings on the branches, He wants to be young again, or, at least, he wants to feel
they bend down and back up toward heaven. Going up towards young again. Combined with these notions of dreaming and
heaven, he is getting away from the earth. He is also getting feeling young again is the more spiritual metaphor of moving
away from reality and up into his imagination. There is the between heaven and earth. As he swings up, he moves toward
notion that earth and reality are on the ground. Swinging up, heaven and then he comes back down to earth. He does not
he heads toward his imagination and heaven. So, in a sense want to escape from the earth completely and this indicates
he is swinging between life and death (the afterlife, heaven). that he is happy in life and does not want to die. He only
Of course, he prefers to inevitably come back down to life. wants to briefly touch and/or dream of heaven.
In the last few lines, he would like to go Toward heaven, May no fate willfully misunderstand me
but come right back down again:
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
While leaving earth and coming back could imply living
But dipped its top and set me down again. multiple lives, the abstract escape the speaker is dreaming of
When he says ‘I’d like to go,’ it may be a reference to here might be as simple as a temporary escape from his daily
death in that he is going from life. In this interpretation, if he routine.
does ‘go,’ he would like to come back (whatever that might
mean). Or perhaps, he would like heaven to be like earth. In
this case, death would be like coming back down to earth/
reality again. He prefers an existence (whether in life or in
heaven) in which one can swing between two worlds: reality
and imagination.
13. ‘Birches’ abounds in abstract and philosophical
elements. Discuss.
Ans. As an adult, the speaker longs to swing on birches again. He
notes how swinging on the birches is a temporary escape
from the earth.
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6. John Brown 156-180

the inner correspondence of end sounds in words or in lines

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The image of death is predominant in this stanza. The Style

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order and structure. While there is a clear indication of chaos

One by one he subdued his father’s trees Glossary

27. considerations - thoughts about wordly troubles About the Poet

Frost is anything but merely a regional poet. The author of Paraphrase/Explanation

speaker compares life to “a pathless wood,” meaning it’s Title

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The speaker seems to make the following disclaimer that Assignment

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Pages 73 to 300 are Missing

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