Ewa Powalska
” Out in the dark“ is a poem written by Edward Thomas. His wife Helen says in one of her books that it was the last poem before he left to fight in the First World War. Helen Thomas describes a very emotional and sad farewell when her husband reads her this poem. The couple know and feel with every centimetre of their bodies they may never see each other again. (independent.co.uk). Edward was killed during the battle of Arras in 1917 (wikipedia.org).
The poem consists of four five-line stanzas. The end sound in every line of each stanza is the same. In the first stanza all the lines rhyme with snow: go, doe, blow, slow. The lines of the second stanza rhyme with round, the third with deer, the fourth with light.
The title sets the poem somewhere in the dark. In the first stanza we learn that it is a dark place with snow on the ground. The voice of the poem paints beautiful and quite sweet images of nature. There is a doe and fawns of probably the same yellowish - brown colour. The word “fallow” means “of a light yellowish-brown colour” (Thefreedictionary.com). The animals might have something in common as they are of the same colour. They seem to be invisible in the night. The wind blows stormily : “as fast as the stars are slow”. That is a paradox because the star movement is fast.
In the second stanza the speaker defines the darkness which moves “stealthily” and quickly: faster “than the swiftest hound”. It “arrives” and haunts so it is something exceptionally unpleasant. The speaker personifies the darkness describing it as somebody who “arrives”. Everything is drown in the darkness. The world is unable to see the light as the lamp goes out. The darkness may symbolize any difficulties that people or the world undergo. There are situations in which human beings feel they are at their wit’s end, unable to go on. Their connection to the light is gone. They are in that place of darkness where they have lost all hope. That might be a war, specifically World War I. We may encounter an autobiographical element here when the author is the voice of a poem who abandons his home and family to fight for his country.
In the third stanza the speaker and the nature represented by deer and wind lay in darkness. They sort of share the experience of the darkness as the voice of the poem says that they are “together“, ”near“ one another. Although the hardship may seem to be similar it also divides them in fear. They feel isolated and anxious. The speaker hears the drums which may symbolize a callling to battle – a battle cry. His struggle is so vast that even a company of a wise person (“sage“) is boring.
In the fourth stanza the light appears which is very “weak and little“ but in the whole dark universe mentioned by the speaker the light seems to be poor and uncertain. “Love and delight“ can be this light or bring the light so that we can notice sweet aspects of life. There are situations in which “love and delight“ may not be able to repel the darkness, “the might“, the power of evil. This can refer to war, as for the author, or terrorism, death of our family members. Suprisingly, the final line impels us to love the darkness otherwise the light might be falling.