Thomas Hardy: Weathers

Song Meaning

The poem opens with a specific, almost cheerful image of weather that the cuckoo, and by extension the speaker, enjoys. This is a season of active life: chestnut spikes are being tumbled, nestlings are taking flight, and the nightingale is singing. The scene shifts to a human element, 'The Traveller's Rest,' where maids in light dresses serve, and citizens are dreaming of distant, perhaps warmer, places. This shared enjoyment, culminating in "And so do I," establishes a sense of pleasant, communal observation. However, the poem pivots sharply with the second stanza, introducing weather that the shepherd actively avoids, and which the speaker also shuns. This is a darker, more somber scene. The beeches are dripping, described with muted colors "in browns and duns," and the natural world seems to be in a state of struggle or heavy activity, with tides throbbing and rivulets overflowing. The imagery here is one of dampness, abundance, and a kind of relentless natural force. The core of the poem lies in this stark contrast between two types of weather and the speaker's dual, yet ultimately unified, response. The first stanza presents a vibrant, almost idyllic scene of burgeoning life and pleasant human interaction, which the speaker embraces. The second stanza depicts a more elemental, perhaps melancholic, natural state that the speaker also finds himself aligned with, despite its less inviting qualities. The repeated "And so do I" acts as a powerful, unifying refrain, suggesting the speaker's capacity to find resonance in both the bright and the brooding aspects of the natural world. This duality makes the lyrics particularly effective. The poem doesn't just describe weather; it uses it to articulate a complex emotional landscape. The speaker's identification with both the cuckoo's preferred conditions and the shepherd's avoided ones suggests a nuanced perspective, one that appreciates both the lively and the somber, the outward-facing and the introspective. The simple, direct language and the clear structural contrast create a profound sense of shared experience with nature's varied moods.