The Faithful Swallow

Right from the title, the reader may be curious to find out why the poet (Thomas Hardy) tells about a
faithful bird. Such curiosity may lead to a careful reading of the text. In
addition another possible conjecture to be made is wondering whether the bird
might be used as a symbol.
The first step to comprehension is to consider the layout: it dearly shows the
poem consists of two octaves and seems rather balanced since both stanzas have
more or less the same line-length. Each line consists of few words, mainly
three. The language is simple and therefore the ideal reader may be a popular
audience. Besides, you can see that each stanza ends with an exclamation mark
and, as a result, it may involve emotions. What strikes the attention is line
12, the only one consisting of a single word that recalls the title. One can
think the word "fidelity" may play a relevant role in the message.
Analyzing the denotative level, the reader can confirm his/her conjectures. The
structure of the poem has been arranged into two stanzas on purpose: the first
octave introduces a pleasant mood, a warm and hot weather, it's August and the
sun shines in the sky. The setting is favorable to the swallow. She is happy
with the environment and everything seems to be perfect: "it's sweetest". The
use of superlative, as well as the language of the bird "here evermore" reinforced
the idea. The use of direct speech adds meaning to the swallow's condition. She
doesn't want to leave that place and she considers all other swallows fickle
because they are going to leave. She is determinate "not to go away to another
place". Her determination is well expressed not only by direct speech but also
the use of simple future "I'll stay. Not go away". The will future expresses an
immediate decision taken almost instinctively thanks to the positive weather
condition. For the same reason, the swallow faithful to the place, she finds
herself make a strong judgment on her companion swallows. The intelligent reader
should understand that the deviation of line 8 is suitable to create a distance
between speaking voice and the other "they". The subject pronoun has been
placed in key position (at the end of the line and of the first stanza) to
highlight the distance and the difference between her (the faithful one) and
the others. The beauty and pleasant atmosphere of summertime is conveyed by the
sound level: the poet used a run-on-line in the first three lines to create an
effect of speed as a fluent rhythm also underlined by the rhyme between "they"
and "stay". Both words synthetize the meaning of the swallow's decision. The
use of the personal subject pronoun "I" gives strength to the swallow's
decision. Her point of view is made even stronger by the comma. "Fickle" belongs
to the same semantic field of "another shore".
It is through the assonance of sound "ey" in "they" and "came" that the poet
moves to a different context, suggested by a different setting, conveyed a
different mood. December is no longer a day, it is a long month and together
with "‘twas not the same" rhyming with "came" of the previous line adds meaning
and strength to the change which is change in weather, in mood and in response.
The change is for the worst and only the swallow can understand that. The exclamation
mark in line 10 expresses the swallow's regret. Differently from the first
stanza, where poetry seemed to relive mainly on narrative poetry, in the second
octave lines still being very similar if not the counter mirror of the first
one seemed to be used to elicit reflection and the text turns out more
reflective than narrative. The reflection made covers lines from 11 to 13 where
the swallow confesses to the reader that she didn't know being faithful didn't
return her any advantage. Fidelity, single in line 12, visually underlines the
swallow's solitude. The mood is also conveyed by jockstrap position of "frost, hunger
and snow". The setting has been turned upside down. Rather strangely the same
place (Summer shone its sweetest) has now become a land of terrible suffering
for the swallow. In the last two lines of the second octave, the swallow
expresses all her suffering and pain: December has replaced August. It can be
said therefore that somebody of which the swallow is a symbol should not make instinctive
decision as did the swallow but people should take in consideration matters
from multiple perspectives. Such consideration would have protected her from
her present situation.