Jada Burroughs Ms.

Ahearn AP Literature 30 September 2013 AP Lit Poetry Paper In my mind, Tennysons poem The Eagle and Hardys poem The Darkling Thrush really showcasess the thoughtful and dim feelings of a person, though there are hopes by the end of the poems. Both are very dark poems and were written as they were painted as a work of art, I could vividly see the prospects given in the poems and I was able to somewhat consider them as a song by using the excellent and powerful figurative languages. Hardys The Darkling Thrush unlike Tennysons, portrays himself leaning upon a coppice gate, and at the same time Frost took over the land like a gray ghost and winters feculence dragged away the sun. In the third stanza, the bird is brought up. An old, frail, gaunt, and small bird is so distinguished from the eagle in Tennysons poem. Hanging in the bleak twigs, the old bird began to sing its own joyful, blissful and full-hearted evensong. Although the thrush was old, frail, gaunt and small it still had chosen to fling its spirit upon the rising gloominess by its song. This corresponds to the bird in The Eagle, because the Eagle sharply sees the hope beneath it, and in the The Darkling Thrush the bird had bought hopes and created a balance between music and the mourn of the wind. In The Eagle, Tennyson describes that the character (I suggest that the character is Tennyson himself) is observing an eagle. The predaceous bird, full of strength, sharp vision, and

graceful flying skills, is pictured by the character as a lonely bird that is ringed with the azure world (1st stanza, line 2-3). I would like to add that the eagles life is not just lonely but also limited, abrupt, and meandering. While the bird, in his conquering place yet so lonely, is observing the world under, it sharply sees with its vision the wrinkled sea beneath it crawls (the 1st line of the 2nd stanza). Hardys unwelcoming, cold, and dawning country view was caused by the personification of Frost and winter (1st 4th lines of the 1st stanza) by capitalizing the first letters of each word just like the humans names. Frost was making the land gray as it was a ghost while winter made the weakening sun (sunset) desolate. In the last stanza, Hardy found that there were little reasons for the bird to sing such a lovely song. But he finally realized that the hopes and the foundation of happiness for the bird was actually written in the distance. One thing which is so interesting for me about these poems was the tone used to draw the situations. In The Eagle Tennyson uses an aaa/bbb rhyme scheme while The Darkling Thrush uses an abab/cdcd rhyme scheme. The styles successfully contribute the emotions and the tensions of each poem. Well, I can conclude that the core of these two poems is Hope. The eagle like a thunderbolt falls and the old thrush sings and flings its soul upon the growing gloom. This shows that there are hopes to walk out from that wintry gloomy December and also shows that it is possible to get out from that lonely world.