The best thing to do for you to gain a good level of
knowledge of this poem is to go through it with a dictionary and try and paraphrase it
yourself. This will really help you to understand it in a way that merely reading my
response will not. But, to get you started and hopefully to encourage you to visit this
excellent poem, consider my humble efforts to paraphrase this
poem.
One day in the middle of a harsh winter, I leant upon
a gate in the countryside. Branches and twigs covered the sky, making them look like the
strings of broken harps. The scene was so desolate, and I was alone, as every other
person had gone inside to seek the warmth of their
fires.
The bleakness and sharpness of the countryside
seemed to represent the death of the century that is coming to pass, with the wind
representing a kind of mournful dirge for the death of the century. In the winter, any
traces of spring and new birth and growth seemed absent, and I found my feelings echoing
this desolate sight.
However, the song of a thrush seemed
to fill the scene with joy. Even though the thrush was old and frail, he seemed to
brighten the atmosphere. This song stood in such contrast to the setting that it gave me
an element of hope which he must have known something of, but I remained unaware
about.
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