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In his A Commentary on the Poems of Thomas Hardy, Frank Pinion draws attention to possible influences on 'The Darkling Thrush', including John Keble and W. H. Hudson. In Keble's poem 'The Twenty- first Sunday after Trinity' we have a gloomy autumnal scene in which a robin sings a 'cheerful tender strain ... contented in his darkling round'. In Hudson's 'Nature in Downland', published in the same year as Hardy's poem, Hudson talks about the way in which 'midwinter is the season of the missel- thrush', singing his loudest when the darkness is at its most pervasive; in spite of which, he 'flings out his notes' as 'an outburst, a cry of happiness'. The links with Hardy are clear if general, though Keble's use of the word 'darkling' could be significant. However, both could have got this direct from Keats.
But there is, I would suggest, another influence which may not have been drawn...