The Darkling Thrush

[@trueKorvus]

Memorised this poem back in the year 2000 when I was 14 and it’s never left me. Can still recite it verbatim. There at the turn of the millennium it felt prescient. Love that you covered this one, thanks.

[@nspargo22]

When you touched on his use of the word terrestrial and stated he’s, in a way, acknowledging the celestial…this immediately came to mind “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” Romans 1:20

[@ianmorris5501]

Honestly after finding this channel, I can't wait till Christmas. The reason, this would be so much better, than anything they put on TV. A Christmas poem, I really can't wait. Bless you sir.📚♥️📚

[@les6186]

Happy New Year to you and yours and to all in this wonderful community you've brought together. May everyone find a small space of peace, contentment for the gifts, and courage in the challenges this coming year might bring. Thank you all for the nourishment and shelter this channel provides!!!!!

[@comeonman8191]

I was thinking about this poem this evening and found your channel for the first time. One irony to Hardy’s sense of his own mortality in this poem is that he lived another 30 years.

[@mf2065]

Thanks for this and all your other videos in 2022, Malcolm. Your channel is a most welcome retreat. Wishing you and all the subscribers and visitors here a very happy and healthy 2023

[@stephanieneujahr9448]

What a beautiful reading and profound explanation of what Hardy was saying. Thank you Malcolm and a very blessed New Year for 2024🎉

[@crochanosullivan2157]

Excellent choice of poem for New Year’s Eve. Really enjoyed this episode - thank you.

[@CornerTalker]

And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

[@NatsuOsugosuHotaru]

Thank you, Malcolm, for taking us into the New Year with a bit more hope and beauty. I shall raise a tot of Uigeadail tonight in your honour as we sing out the old with Robert Burns. May blessings and health follow you in 2023.

[@adrianrice9450]

Rave on, dear Malcolm, through 2023! Thanks for all you do x Ad

[@cliffhiggins730]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful poem with us, Dr. Guite. A Happy New Year to you!

[@anthonyvictor3034]

Thank you Malcolm. I love Hardy’s poetry. Faith in doubt, doubt in faith, and the inevitable search for a language of the transcendent. Prayers and good wishes for the New Year.

[@walkingnerfwithjack1881]

Happy New Year to you too, Malcolm!

[@Mike-yt5cw]

Thank you for inviting us in, sir. Happy New Year, and may God bless you and your family. It is the perfect poem for this day this year, and was very well read, with just the right amount of commentary on the wonderful word darkling. I hadn't thought of Hardy in years, since college, sadly, so thank you again for giving him voice. I would like to think that as he listened, he also sang, the lonely old gentleman, at least in some hidden part of the heart that told him poetry was worth the time and the work of listening and writing.

[@anselman3156]

This is the only thing of Hardy's writings that I have loved since I first read it. Marvelous.

[@wendy-moore]

Thank you, Malcolm. That was wonderful.

[@cynthiaford6976]

You are Tennyson's "fuller minstrel" ! Happy New Year! In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells] Alfred, Lord Tennyson - 1809-1892 Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

[@oldandintheway1955]

A very Happy and Healthy New Year to you and yours. 🥃 Serene smokes

[@Scotch5ailor]

It's a joy to follow along with you. Many thanks.

[@Blakefan2520]

Happy New Year to the man who has enriched my life by introducing me to poetry. From the hills of eastern Tennessee, my best wishes for a happy and healthy 2023 my good man!

[@tsundru]

I grew up in the hills of Eastern Tennessee and have also found myself enriched by Malcolm. Best to you!

[@rickslark2316]

Happy New Year, Malcolm. I continue to learn from your knowledge and your passion.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

thanks, I'm glad my work is helpful

[@lknussey1481]

A blessed New Year to you. You have such an instinctive gift for catching the spirit of the moment.

[@lareunoia]

thanks for this, malcolm. happy new year to you and yours. perhaps we'll meet again in 2023

[@stephiedrown795]

❤thank you !

[@KATIEKATEish]

Enjoyed the poem and your comments and your accent

[@elpablo2747]

Love this video

[@MichaelJenkins910]

Thank you, sir. Happy New Year to you and yours!

[@StDavidpipes]

Diloch ywn fawr. Nice poem. Happy New Year and God’s blessings!

[@dtkaff]

Thank you, Sir! Happy New Year!

[@shirtsleeves860]

Many thanks .. Interesting that Mary Baker Eddy's poem - "Satisfied" .. also containing the word "darkling" .. was written in January, 1900.

[@sethkidwell6728]

Thanks for the poem Malcolm:)

[@lalitborabooks]

Happy New Year sir. I have recently bought your ‘Mariner: A voyage with ST Coleridge’ and I look forward to read it.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@billcanonico6657]

...do you think he intentionally borrowed the words "blessed hope" from the letter st. paul wrote to titus, or is it just a coincidence?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

hard to say

[@aurorastorm9842]

It is astonishing Malcom. Does it not say in Revelations at the end of the world , the birds 🐦 stop singing. I listen to them in their song is the code of the Divine.

[@mattiacangelosi8738]

happy new year malcom! cheers from Italy

[@chrissolbe5752]

Boss TR-2 tremolo pedal in shot👌

[@charlescollins8385]

Will you make a video sharing how to understand poetry. Poetry 101 for beginners. I’m interested but don’t feel like I can understand it. Thanks!

[@shaungissing8953]

Happy New Year to you sir.

[@brycecurtis8483]

I find you to be a delight Sir! Your Brother in Christ, Bryce T. Curtis. Theology and pipe smoke...Bliss

[@buckchevy4343]

Hi Malcolm, that looks like an interesting carved amethyst pig on the shelf. What is its history?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

In fact its a glass bear and belonged to my mother!

[@kurtisneilmcinnis8353]

Happy New Year to you and yours as well! Do you reckon that Hardy could be lamenting the death of the “pure poetry” of Romanticism when he writes of the “broken lyre”? That the Victorians had played it safe by their didactic “household fires”? And now this tousled little harbinger was saying, “Don’t worry; the Romantic spirit will live on in the coming century”?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

it would be nice to think so

[@davidgilchrist2255]

Great pipe! What is it?

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Peterson

[@johnfife3062]

Happy Hogmanay.

[@albertguite5253]

Is it ur surname guite sir🤔

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes

[@theimperialangler]

All the best for the new year ahead. Thanks for some inspirational readings over the last year.

[@Charles-y4r]

Thanks! Hardy is still with us. I heard poetry was what he wanted to write but had to do novels to make a living.

[@CornerTalker]

I liked his poetry, so I tried "Far from the Madding Crowd." I finished it, but never read another.

[@sc-b-dl5pi]

I have tears in my eyes. I learnt this poem by heart when I was 18 years old, because I loved it so much, and I haven't heard it in over 30 years. It's a beautiful dark piece. Thank you so much for reading this to me again ❤️

[@Al-iv3mb]

I learned it at school when I "had" to study for my o level English lit. I became an absolute devotee and have read everything Hardy wrote. This remains one of a very few poems I can still recite.

[@totheway]

Beautiful, a great reflection for the final day of 2022. Thanks!

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@AndyRoberts-bs2vv]

Dear Malcom, I must say that I enjoyed listening to your enthusiasm, dissection and reading of this piece as much as the poem itself. Both are wonderful, thank you and please do more videos of this ilk.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Jacob011]

Thank you for sharing and Happy New Year to you as well. I hope to pick up your Sounding the Seasons next year. The poem's ending "*was* unaware" signals awareness regained to me.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

that's an interesting though about 'was'

[@stewartconacher6552]

Happy New Year. Looking forward to more enjoyable videos next year.

[@emil_rainbow]

Thank you for sharing, Malcolm-wonderful insight. Fortunate we are. All the best.

[@kiwitraveller6451]

Malcolm and you dear lovely wife and family and friends and those on this subscribed and commenting community abundance from above in all your lives...I have got back writing poetry after watching this channel so a BIG thank you Malcolm and from HIM above...and within us all...Big Love and Big Hugs from NZ...❤❤❤🙏

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

glad to have stirred you on to writing

[@josephhilditch8792]

I always find your videos very comforting and everything feels very cosy

[@alanbarrow7447]

Absolutely cannot abide the obsessive popping puffing at that pipe, which is a pity as I would otherwise like the channel very much.

[@saltwatergallery2005]

I’ve always loved that poem. So nice to hear you discuss and recite it! 👏✨

[@johnneville403]

I just stumbled on this channel the other day. What a joy! Books, poems, pints of lovely beer and interesting conversation.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@ashutripathi6852]

I really love the way u taught us💖 I want to be a writer and I have read a lot of books and yeah with feelings but the way u read it👏👏 thank u so much sir ♥️

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

I'm so glad!

[@MarlinPiper2024]

What is your favorite tobacco

[@stevenwoods5551]

Happy New Year to all Malcolm. I have just found your channel and we share a joy of the pipe and the pint!. I am a big fan of Hardy but as been said a number of times his sense of mortality in the Darkling Thrush is very interesting since he lived a further 30 odd years. Could i also draw your attention to the writing of T.E Lawrence i would love to get your view on the Mint?, it is not a poem but i do find his writing poetic at times. On a small side issue their is a tobacco called Lord of the Rings, its German i be thinking. I look forward to many happy hours listening to this channel. My best to you for the coming year

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

I read the seven pillars of wisdom years ago but there is something od=f the poseur in Lawrence that puts me off

[@timhower3628]

You are about to come to the community that I now I find myself living in. I still find myself a Alaskan neither here nor there..I hope when you come to Lancaster Pennsylvania in February your will find yourself at Central Market which is a half block from where you will give your talk. Central Maret is the oldest Farmers market in the nation. Founded in 1730. So much history in less than two blocks from where you will give your speech is amazing In Christ Tim

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

I look forward to it

[@sterlingreads547]

Beautiful! I’ve only read his novels, now I must read his poetry! Thank you for sharing!

[@Nighttrainpiper]

Lovely poem by Hardy. I had no idea the author of “Mayor of Casterbridge” was capable of invoking such idealism. Thrushes are one of the most endearing birds to me. Be well brother.

[@Al-iv3mb]

Thank you for defining Hardy's reference and use of the word, Darkling. I always assumed it was a reference to the failing light of a winters afternoon

[@aurorastorm9842]

I love Thomas Hardy my favourite character is Gabriel Oak. Happy New Year Malcom . Beautiful poem.

[@cameronshorkey843]

What an absolute gift of a poem. That may be one of the most moving and beautiful I've ever heard. Thank you for sharing this, and indeed, all of these videos. They bring comfort and inspiration.

[@burningbright34]

So glad I found this channel. Pipe smoking, sharing wisdom and books of poems. Exactly what I was looking for

[@67leighton]

Thank you, brother. This was a delightful visit with Mr. Hardy’s poem.

[@ahmadtajy7178]

I'm just astonished at the way you interpret it. Thank you, kind Sir. And Happy New Year!

[@NuYiDao]

Hardy got his big start from a dubious occultist, I wonder if he was not so much atheist as anti the CS Lewis-scathed, sharp-shouldered, feckless middle class "church".

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

well Lewis was rather after his time

[@NuYiDao]

@@MalcolmGuitespell Curious of what you make of Aleister, since he's been a guru of mine since I found him in the library when I was in dire need of an honest voice, and I found his to be a clear mountain spring.

[@warrenstutely7151]

So beautifully read. Many many thanks. Warren

[@Bob-rj2ye]

So good i love the way you translates the poem

[@mrmouse7642]

Hello Father. A couple of things: (1) I'm sorry I no longer share the CoE with you - born into it, via Methodism and Congregationalism, I left it 17 years ago for Holy Orthodoxy, as I believed the CoE had badly lost its way, and have never looked back - I found my long searched for home; (2) Thomas Hardy's poems are great - I studied them for 'O' Level English Litt 40 years ago. I was taught by "Mad Mike" Tolkien of the Tolkien family who brought it to life. Darkling Thrush is a classic, of course. I still have my O Level text book. So are, in my opinion, Beeney Cliff, the Division and Broken Appointment - the latter two have always stuck with me, they are still contemporary for lovers, or at least were when I was that age - and there are so many others - You did not Come; and (3) you use a Zippo to light your pipe. I haven't smoked now for 21 years but a Zippo on pipe tobacco - surely that must spoil it. Matches surely. All the best.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

I find I dont get fumes from the zippo and its real]ly the only thing you can use outdoors

[@oculii1]

Dear Sir, I cherish your work, your love for and commitment to our beloved culture and what it foreshadows, your quiet yet passionate nurture for things often overlooked, and invaluable.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Thanks

[@UberMicroRepairs]

There's a cream for that.

[@Mattsavage69]

Well I thought it was funny.

[@tigermiep]

wishing you and yours a beautiful new year!

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Same to you!

[@reaganwiles_art]

Wonderful!

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Many thanks!

[@woodnugget1301]

I really don’t no why I’m drawn. Maybe the pipe maybe the character maybe the stories I don’t no. But there is a peaceful something. Happy new year to you all pipe or not 🙏