Essay 1: "The Darkling Thrush" v. "Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos"

Poetry has always been, rather, a different and possibly a harder text to understand compared to prose. Many times poets use different poetic elements to give their readers better understanding of the poem. As time progressed poets went from using English Romantics to using modernism. Lord Byron wrote “Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” in the time of Romantics, where as Thomas Hardy wrote “The Darkling Thrush” in the time of modernism. Both of these poets used imagery, figure of speech, and similes in different ways to try and get their point across to their readers.

Lord Byron wrote about his adventure, his accomplishment, and his belief on the power of love in the poem. The poem is comparing his own experiences of crossing the river of Hellespont to that of fabled Leander. Leander tried to swim across the river for his love, but unfortunately he drowned and could not make it through. Byron also swims across the river, just for his own glory and actually makes it through with just a cold and fever. He tries to tell his readers that dying for a woman is senseless because it gives no special power.

On the other hand, Thomas Hardy writes about the world changing and everything good coming to an end. Hardy starts the poem by giving a very ominous setting and then shows a sad image. In the poem he writes about how the people are forgetting the older times and accepting the modern beliefs. The poem tells the reader right away that the poet is not happy about this change and believes that it might destroy the world.

The imagery presented in both poems is completely different, in the sense that one is completely negative and the second one is positive. Lord Byron gives a fairly positive and brave image in his poem.
“To woo, -- and – Lord knows what beside,
And swam for Love, as I for Glory;”
He talks about how the two men swam in a river with strong currents in the dead of December and May. Lord Byron presents two separate images; one for his own adventure and another for the adventure of Leander. In the beginning, the poem presents the image of Leander swimming the river and then later there is an image of Byron swimming across the river. This particular style proves to be very effective to the meaning of the poem, because it makes it easy for the reader to compare the two adventures. He tries to say that there was not much of any difference in the situation and yet he survived but Leander did not.

Thomas hardy presents a very ominous image of the world giving it a completely negative atmosphere. The image is given in the beginning but changes to more of a hope and sad image. For example in the begging he says:
“I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray”
This sentence gives an image of a wooden gate in the dead of winter on haunted landscapes. Then he goes and tells the reader how he is standing outside in the cold looking at the land of despair, while people are just sitting in their homes with fireplaces on to stay warm. Then the poem continues on, but gives a new image after “The aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small.” After this sentence the poet gives the reader the image of a person in despair and looking for hope.
“Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.”
The poet presents two different images of the same situation, rather than presenting two images of two separate situations like Lord Byron did. Byron uses the idea of compare and contrast with his images and Hardy uses the idea of problem and solution (except his solution was hope rather than a real solution).

The imagery of the poems goes hand in hand with the figure of speech used by these two poets. There are two ways in which the reader can look at the figure of speech; one is the poem as a whole, and the second is the sentence it self in “The Darkling Thrush.” The entire poem is trying to talk about the change from Victorian era to modern era, but is presented by talking about a haunted land. The second way to look at the poems’ figure of speech is the sentence itself, for example: “The tangled bine-stems scored the sky.” This sentence literally means that some plant stem made a line or boundary in the sky. The poet actually meant that there was now a shift from the older times into newer modern times. The figure of speech in the poem adds to the meaning, in the sense that it gives the reader a clear view of what the poet was trying to say. He wanted to show the reader the importance of the change and how unexpected it was.

Lord Byron also uses figure of speech, but not nearly as much as Thomas Hardy. “He lost his labour, I my jest;” This sentence literally means that Leander lost his life, while Byron seemed make a joke about it. The poet probably meant to show how Leander lost everything and Lord Byron lost nothing, when in fact he gained confidence. Lord Byron uses figure of speech to make fun of the situation and to show a little sarcasm in his poem.

Aside from imagery and figure of speech, both of these poets also included a glimpse of simile to make their poems more meaningful. Hardy says:
“The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,”
He compares the stems of shrubs to the strings of a musical instrument. Although, Hardy does use simile as a main element in his poem, he still presents this sentence to create and add to the ominous image of the world. Lord Byron also does not make massive use of simile, but when used, he uses it for a different purpose. “And swam for Love, as I for Glory;” In this sentence, Byron compares love and glory; possibly showing they are equal in power. Byron uses this simile to show the motives of Leander and himself. After presenting his two images, Byron goes on and mentions why they did what they did in this sentence. In his two images there seemed to be little difference (exactly how he wanted his readers to see) but after presenting the motives the readers are able to see why there might be two different endings.

Lord Byron and Thomas Hardy uses images, figure of speech and simile to present there poem and to help their readers better understand. Lord Byron presents his poem in a story form, where he presents two separate images, then the motives, the conclusion and finally presenting his moral or main purpose. Thomas hardy presents his poem in more of like ‘here is the situation; this is what we can do.’ He talks about how the world has shifted from old traditional lives to more modernism and individualism. The structure in Lord Byron poems seems to be better in the sense that is presents a clear image of what he wants the reader to understand. His imagery is very simple, not much of figure of speech and uses a simile to show the difference in motives. Thomas Hardy’s poem seems to rely heavily on figure of speech and metaphors making it hard for readers, who do not have background knowledge about the time period, to understand. It is pretty hard for the reader to realize the meaning, if they do not understand the poem. With different poetic elements, poets can present their poems, but some seem to be more effective than others.