The Faithful Swallow

When summer shone
Its sweetest on
An August day,
‘Here evermore,’
I said, ‘I'll stay;
Not go away
To another shore
As fickle they!’

December came:
'Twas not the same!
I did not know
Fidelity
Would serve me so.
Frost, hunger, snow;
And now, ah me,
Too late to go!

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS – The Faithful Swallow

The object of the present work is to discuss and analyse the poem “The Faithful Swallow” by Thomas Hardy.

The poem focuses the reader’s attention thanks to its regular pattern that creates an effect of balance and elegance. The intelligent reader therefore understands that “Fidelity” is really the keyword and the theme of the whole text. In addition, it recalls the adjective “Faithful” of the title.

The text is a poem and, to tell the truth, the intelligent reader may be curious to find out why the poet tells about a faithful bird. Such curiosity is a sufficient reason to go on with a careful reading of the text. In addition another possible conjecture to be made is wondering whether the bird might be used as a personification. The “Faithful Swallow” suggests the idea of something that may provide a sense of a guide. It follows that the analysis of the poem is meant to discover the message the speaking voice wants to send and to whom the poet refers when he uses the word “Swallow”.
In order to reach the goal the present work will develop a structural analysis first and on a second moment will consider how connotative choices add to the meaning.
Just considering the layout, the reader realises the text is organised into two long stanzas. Each stanza is made up of eight lines and seems quite balanced since both stanzas have more or less the same line-length. Each line consists of few words, two or three.
From a structural point of view, punctuation reveals to be essential: each stanza ends with an exclamation mark and, as a result, it may intensifies emotions. To tell the truth, both octaves played the same role: the first one relies on the summer season, more precisely in the month of August, while the second octave tells of the month of December and therefore of the winter season. Before tackling with the different seasons and their effects, it is worth to considering also line length in the poem. The investigation immediately makes clear that the fourth line of the second stanza is very short or at least shorter than the others. What’s more, the fourth line of the last stanza is the only one consisting of a single word, “Fidelity”, that comes to the forefront. Thus giving a central and therefore core position to the noun that recalls the title. One can think the word “Fidelity” may play a relevant role in the message. In so doing, the speaker not only focuses the reader’s attention on “Fidelity”, but he also gives it a privileged position and no intelligent reader can escape noticing this. What’s more, the intelligent reader should speculate on the nature of that noun because it may refer to the faithful bird. Besides, the personal subject pronoun "I", repeated in both stanzas, may refer to the speaking voice, giving a lot of strength to the swallow’s decision. This will result from the next steps of analysis.

Now, moving forward with the denotative analysis of the text, the reader realises that all the choices that cover the poem are not random. The structure of the poem has been organised into two stanzas on purpose: the first octave introduces an enjoyable state of mind. It is August, the weather is warm and the sun shines in the sky. The setting seems to be pleasant to the swallow. Such idea is highlighted by the statements “It’s sweetest” and “Here evermore”. The use of superlative reinforced the idea. The use of direct speech adds meaning to the swallow’s condition. During the summer, she decides to stay in a place forever and she thinks that other swallows are “fickle”, because they are going to leave. She instead doesn’t want to leave that place. Her determination is expressed not only by the phrase “not to go away to another shore”, but also the use of simple future “I’ll stay”. The intelligent reader should understand that there is a deviation in line eight. It served the poet to create a distance between the speaking voice and “they”. The personal subject pronoun has been placed in key position to underline the distance between the faithful swallow and the others. It follows that all the stylistic choices illustrated so far contribute to make meaning more lively. Also they add a sense of joy and quietness to the message sent.

Coming now to consider the second octave, the reader realises that it is somehow different from the previous one. The speaking voice’s opinion change. The poet moves to a different context, suggested by a different setting, conveyed a different state of mind. It is December, the days are shorter. So the reader can understand it is a long month. “came” rhyming with “Twas not the same” of the next line adds meaning and strength to the change. Differently from the first stanza, the same place has now become a land of terrible suffering for the swallow. December has replaced August. The text turns out reflective. The idea of reflection is also given by "ah me", which underlines the fact that the swallow is blaming herself. The swallow confesses to the reader that she didn’t know being faithful didn’t return her any advantage. Fidelity underlines the swallow’s solitude. The mood is also conveyed by “frost, hunger and snow”. In the last two lines of the second octave, the swallow expresses all her suffering and pain.

It can be said therefore that there is a personification because the swallow is the main character and she is talking to us. Besides, she represents somebody who is should not make instinctive decision as did the swallow but should take in consideration matters from multiple perspectives.