This poem describes two different types of weather - pleasant weather in the spring that the poet enjoys, and unpleasant weather in the autumn that the poet dislikes. The first stanza depicts a nice spring day with showers, singing nightingales, and people socializing outdoors. The second stanza portrays an unpleasant autumn with heavy rain, trees losing their leaves, flooding streams, and birds flying home to shelter from the bad weather - all things the poet prefers to avoid, like the shepherd avoiding bad weather.

1. WEL COME TO
MY
PRESENTATION
NARENDRA KUMAR NIDHI
LOWER SEC. TEACHER
SHREE DURGA HIGHER SEC. SCHOOL
,BAREWA-KALAIYA-10
BARA

2. NARENDRA KUMAR NIDHI
LOWER SEC. ENGLISH TEACHER
IN DURGA H.S.SCHOOL,KALAIYA

3. WEATHERS
BY THOMAS HARDY

7. Thomas Hardy
This is the weather the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,
And nestlings fly;
And the little brown nightingale bills his best,
And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,'
And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest,
And citizens dream of the south and west,
And so do I.
This is the weather the shepherd shuns,
And so do I;
When beeches drip in browns and duns,
And thresh and ply;
And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe,
And meadow rivulets overflow,
And drops on gate bars hang in a row,
And rooks in families homeward go,
And so do I.

8. Weathers by Thomas Hardy
 Born
2 June 1840
Stinsford, Dorchester, Dorset, England
 Died
11 January 1928 (aged 87)
Dorchester, Dorset, England
 Resting place
Stinsford parish church (heart)
Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey (ashes)
 Occupation
Novelist, Poet, and Short Story writer

9. Alma mater
King's College London
Literary movement
Naturalism, Victorian literature
Notable work(s)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles,
Far from the Madding Crowd,
Collected Poems
Jude the Obscure

10. One of the themes of Hardy's
poetry that it is hard to ignore is
the weather and the countryside,
and in this simplistic poem Hardy
re-visits these themes by focussing
on two different states of weather
and how one is desired and loved
by himself and others and the
other state of weather is disliked
and shunned

11. The first season is spring, when
"showers betumble the
chestnut spikes, / And nestlings
fly." The singing of the
nightingale and the feeling of
joy in people as spring comes,
announcing the end of winter,
creates an excitement in the
natural world that is shared by
the narrator.

12. The second season is autumn,
which "the shepherd shuns." This
is when "beeches drip in browns
and duns," and birds such as
rooks, in an attempt to escape the
bad weather, "homeward go." This
sentiment of wanting to escape
the bad weather is shared by the
narrator, who likewise heads
home to his warm house

13. Things to note in this poem
is the simplistic, child-like
rhythm that is reinforced by
repetition of lines such as
"And so do I," that make this
a poem more for children
compared to Hardy's more
serious poems.

14. THIS IS THE WEATHER THE CUCKOO
LIKES

15. AND SO DO I

16. This is the weather the cuckoo likes,
And so do I;
The poem is about good and bad weather. The
first stanza describes good weather and the
second stanza describes unpleasant weather.
The pleasant weather is weather the cuckoo
likes. The cuckoo is a bird that can be seen in
England in the spring and summer. the poet
likes summer weather too.

17. WHEN SHOWERS BETUMBLE THE
CHESTNUT SPIKES

18. When showers betumble the
chestnut spikes,
Betumble is old-fashioned. It means to
make tumble = to make fall.This is the time
when showers = short periods of rain make
the chestnuts fall from the trees. Chestnuts
are the fruits from the tree with the same
name. They are shiny and brown inside a
green spiky hull. They start to be ripe in the
late summer.Showers are pleasant when it’s
hot, but too much rain is unpleasant. In the
second stanza we’ll have lots of rain.

19. AND NESTLINGS FLY

20. And nestlings fly;
Little birds fly out of
the nest.Nestling is a
word we wouldn’t use
anymore now. It
sounds old-fashioned.

21. AND THE LITTLE BROWN
NIGHTINGALE BILLS HIS BEST

22. And the little brown
nightingale bills his
best,
This line sounds melodic because of the
alliterative b in brown and bills and best.A
nightingale is a small songbird, famous for
its beautiful song. “Bills his best” means he
presents his best song. This is a word play, as
bill can both mean the bird’s beak (hard
mouth) and bill in the sense of sell, present.

23. And they sit outside at
‘The Traveller’s Rest,

24. And they sit outside at ‘The
Traveller’s Rest,
The “they” must be some
people. “The Traveller’s Rest”
sounds like the name of an
inn (a hotel for travellers) or
a pub.

25. And maids come forth
sprig-muslin drest,

26. And maids come forth
sprig-muslin drest,
Maids is an old-fashioned word for
girls.Come forth is old-fashioned for
appear.“Muslin” is an old word for a soft
cotton fabric that was used for women’s
dresses a lot. Sprig-muslin may refer to the
cloth being embroidered or decorated by
tree or flower branches. “Drest” is an old-
fashioned spelling for dressed.

27. And citizens dream of the
south and west,And so do
I.

28. And citizens dream of the
south and west,And so do
I.
The pleasant season makes
people dream of travelling.
And the poet feels like
going on a trip too.

29. This is the weather the shepherd
shuns,
And so do I;

30. This is the weather the
shepherd shuns,
And so do I;
Shun means avoid.Shepherd is the job
of guarding the sheep as they walk in
the fields.Naturally, shepherds don’t
like their job in the heavy weather of
autumn or winter.And the poet doesn’t
like to be outside either.

31. When beeches drip in browns
and duns

32. When beeches drip in
browns and duns
A beech is a common tree in
England. In the autumn, its
leaves colour and drop off the
branches. “Dun” is a dull brown
colour, almost grey. The trees
drip because it’s been raining.

33. And thresh and ply

34. And thresh and ply
The trees (or its branches
and leaves) thresh = beat
and throw. They ply = twist.
The image is of branches
moving violently in the
wind.

35. And hill-hid tides throb,
throe on throe

36. And hill-hid tides
throb, throe on throe
The tides = movements of ebb
and flood. They are hidden
behind hills. Throb means beat
like a heart. A throe is a painful
contraction, some movement
that your muscle would make
when it feels pain.

37. And meadow rivulets overflow,

38. And meadow rivulets
overflow,
A meadow is the grassland on which
cows and sheep graze. Rivulets are
small rivers or streams of water.
Overflow means be filled with too
much water; flood.When rivulets
overflow it’s because it has been
raining a lot.

39. And drops on gate bars hang
in a row,

40. And drops on gate bars
hang in a row,
if you listen to the rhythm, you’ll hear
how musical it is. It’s also an enjoyable
image when you see the raindrops hanging
in a row from the gate bars = fence. I don’t
know whether you’ve ever noticed a row
of drops hanging from some iron stick or
trellis (the open ironwork in windows,
fences, etc.); when the light catches them
it’s very pretty

41. And rooks in families
homeward go,
And so do I.

42. And rooks in families
homeward go,
And so do I.
A rook is a kind of crow (= a large black
bird that can’t sing). They eat seeds from
the land, besides insects and worms. If
they all think the weather is too bad to
stay outside, it means the weather really is
terrible!And the poet goes home in this
kind of weather too.