Essay Sample on Gate to Death: Thomas Hardy's Metaphorical Journey

The word "gate" an allusion that symbolizes a key moment for Thomas Hardy as he walks via the gate towards "the coppice." In this context, the diction "the coppice" is used metaphorically to represent something dark and unpleasant. Negative semantic thing such as "specter-grey" and "dregs" reveals a negative atmosphere of the poem. Winter is used symbolically, which reveals the pathetic fallacy of death (Hardy, 1272). The poem is about the poet's feeling of the future. Broken lyres are used metaphorically that makes him feel negative in the new century. Poet is desolate and alone. In this context, the focus on the ghost semantic reveals that the world in which people live appears dead (Hardy, 1272). The phrase "look at the harp" is a broken statement to represent the imaginative poet failure. In the final line, there is a reflection of the sense of isolation from the rest of mankind.

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The winter does not appear to a normal. There is a symbol of renewal. However, the poet does not see the possibility of the future. The poem develops a negative mood. The fact that audiences are introduced to the "voice" before they are introduced to "twig" is a vital concept of the poem (Hardy, 1272). The concept develops the beauty of the song in which depression is broken. The unlimited nature of "joy" at this point is critical. Thus, the thrush is not being thrashed by all its problems. Although there is a blast, there are chances of creativity.

Words such as "carolings" and "ecstatic" create a positive impact out of the negativity. The words reveal a slight change in the moods and highlight the fundamentally weak nature of the thrush had on the poet (Hardy 1272). The word "happy" reveals that somewhere in the poem, there was a lack of happiness.

The poem has an appealing connotation where it is separated into two parts. The poem focuses on a smaller aspect of good in every dismal that surrounds it and the dismal part about the beginning of the winter (Hardy 1272). The poem expounds on approaching winter with some aspects of goodness in a depressing time.

The aspect of imagery occurs when the narrator is sitting in the small wood and begins to see a thrush, symbolizing a small bird (Hardy 1272). Under this gloom, readers can see one living aspect, which is the small bird. However, the narrator begins to develop some of the ends of the little thrush.

The theme of the poem is finding good meaning in everything. Where good can be found in almost everything (Hardy 1272), however, it is assumed that God does everything with a purpose where goodness does not appear immediately. Although goodness can be found in people's jobs whenever searched.

In the second stanza, the poet has covered imagery from a broader perspective. The poet uses personification of the landscape, such as using inanimate objects to refer to a human. For instance, the poet uses the landscape to signify the dead body lying around where the wind is the death lament and the clouds as coffin top (Hardy 1272). Alliteration is also used to give a rhythmic flow such as canopy, cloudy, crypts, and corpse. Alliteration used helps in creating a decorative effect where the poem reveals its temperament and nature. In the final line, there is a reflection of the sense of isolation from the rest of mankind.