TEXTUAL ANALYSIS:

The Faithful Swallow

In this text, I am going to discuss the poem The Faithful Swallow, analysing title, layout and finally  denotation  and connotation. The poem was written by Thomas Hardy in 1913.

Considering the title, I expect the poem to be about faith and I suppose the swallow will be a metaphor for something that always returns. Indeed, the swallow is a bird, which returns every spring, the season of rebirth. It remains all Summer long and disappears every Autumn.

Before reading the poem, I notice it is arranged into two stanzas of eight lines each. While I’m reading, I focus my attention on the poet’s structural choice and remember that I need to understand the contrast between the two parts.

The poem expresses two different situations see from a human being’s point of view - maybe the poet’s one. In the first stanza, the setting is a sunny, sweet and summer August.day.  The speaking voice wants to live i the same place forever and suggests someone (more probably the swallow) not to go away.

In the second stanza there’s a different scenery, it’s Winter. The speaking voice, as promised, is still in the same place, but it’s December and everywhere you can find  “frost, hunger and snow”. He is regretful because he can’t escape now.

Denotative analysis makes  the function of the first stanza clear: it reports the poet’s opinion. I suppose he thinks human beings make promises, when they live a wonderful moment of their lives, but in difficult times they prefer escape.

Further reading unveils the idea of a deceived man comes to my mind. In the first stanza you can image a man distracted by the surrounding beauties, that invite him to stay. However, in the second stanza he seems to have fallen into a trap and he is alone, in the middle of a cold, snowy day representing a danger. Indeed, the swallow is elsewhere and safe.

Considering structure, there is no rhyme scheme, but rather lots of consonances and assonances (es: shone – evermore – shore, day – stay – away – they – came – same, know – so – snow – go, me – fidelity). There are also some alliterations: for example, the first stanza is characterized by sounds  S, E and A; while in the second stanza you can find lots of N, O and W. I don’t know if it is a coincidence, but the six more repeated letters create a word connected with their stanza: in the first one we can find the word “sea”, which reminds you of summer and later you can read “now”, the periodof time covering the second stanza.

The punctuation highlights the pauses and creates suspense, as you can note in the fifth and the fifteenth lines. It also focuses the attention on feelings and emotions.

Considering the semantic field, the poet uses words connected with natural elements (shore, snow) and seasons (summer, August, December). The strategy conveys more contrast between the two stanzas.

Finally, you can say the poem's teaching is that you shouldn't make instinctive decisions, without thinking and being rational; therefore you should analyse the situation and make suppositions about your future. Everyone should ask him/herself: "What should I do? What will make me happy?"