"The Darkling Thrush"
The speaker recalls a winter day spent in countryside. The landscape was bare and desolate, and he felt a deep sense of pessimism about the world, both because of the depressing natural landscape, and because of the end of the nineteenth century. Then, in the darkness, a thrush called out. Although its song could not break up either the gloom of the winter day, or the dawning of modernity, it did suggest a possibility for hope beyond worldly things.
"Afterwards"
The speaker speculates on the manner of his own death, and how he will be remembered. Situating himself in a broader natural landscape characterized by lively creatures and delicate growing things, the speaker imagines that he will not be remembered for his impact on the world, but rather for his capacity for observation. Ultimately, that capacity was what enabled him to go beyond the limits of his body and access the vast mysteries which make up the universe.
"The Voice"
The speaker hears the voice of a dead woman who he has lost calling out. He imagines her not as she was when she died, but as she was when they first met, and were still in love with one another. Although he recognizes that the voice he hears is merely the breeze over the meadows, he still hears the call of his lost love as he wanders through the bleak landscape. The poem depicts Hardy's own complicated feelings at the death of his estranged wife, Emma Gifford.
"The Convergence of the Twain"
The speaker reflects on the sunken ship Titanic, musing that it's collision with the iceberg was fated and could not have been stopped. See the ClassicNote for this poem here.
