Following poetic devices have been used in the poem, “The Darkling Thrush”:-

1. Metaphor:- it refers to any word or expression that in literal usage denotes one kind of thing is applied to a distinctly different kind of thing without asserting a comparison. Here it has been used to describe the setting of the winter sun and the day coming to an end by saying, “weakening eye of the day.” Also while describing the thrush’s zeal for life the poet says, “fling his soul.”

2. Alliteration:- it is for the lyrical musicality of the poem since it refers to the repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words. In some lines the consonant ‘c’ has been stressed like “his crypt the clpudy canopy” or in lines like “That I could think there trembled through” the consonant ‘t’ has been stressed.

3. Simile:- it is an elaborate comparison is made between two distinctly different things, and it is explicitly indicated by the word ‘like’ or ‘as.’  Over here, by saying “The tangled bine stems scored the sky/ Like strings of broken lyre” the poet adds more to the sadness and grief around him.

4. Symbolism:- it is applied only to a phrase or a word that represents an event or an object which in its turn signifies something, or suggests a range of reference, beyond itself. The poet says “The land’s sharp features seemed to be/ The century’s corpse outleant.” He says how the land, undergone throughout the century, is dying and reflecting the dying century in turn.

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