Tom felt his darkness. His father was beautiful and clever, his mother was short and mathematically sure. Each of his brothers and sisters had looks or gifts or fortune. Tom loved all of them passionately, but he felt heavy and earth-bound. He climbed ecstatic mountains and floundered in the rocky darkness between the peaks. He had spurts of bravery but they were bracketed in battens of cowardice. John Steinbeck
About This Quote

Thomas Hardy wrote, "Tom felt his darkness." Hardy uses a poetic device with a Shakespearean sonnet in this line. The poet says a line of a sonnet and then says a phrase with a different meaning. In this case, Tom is saying that he feels heavy and earth-bound. Therefore, the line is "I have spurts of bravery but they are bracketed in battens of cowardice." He feels that he is on the down side of life and that he is not brave at all.

Source: East Of Eden

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