Poetry Analysis: Dylan Thomas' "Fern-Hill"
Rukhaya M.K., Yahoo Contributor Network
Jan 12, 2014
In the poem "Fern-Hill", the poet looks back in retrospection at his childhood. "Fern-Hill" was the farm of Thomas' aunt Ann Jones. The poet recalls this place as he used to spend his holidays here, away from his native Swansea.
The poem is indeed singular because though it is written by an adult, it is captured through the eyes of a child. The poet gives a picturesque description of the idyllic farm. The times were filled with euphoria as he was happy and carefree under the apple boughs. He is overcome with elation and it appears as though the house is lilting or singing. The grass was green--green being a symbol of prosperity and freshness. The night above the wooded valley was starry.
Time is personified here. The poet asserts that Time welcomed him to the heydays of his eyes, helped him climb/progress in its vision. And he was prince of the apple towns. His experience is a regal one; the noun 'prince' also signifies that he owned all of this property as the legitimate inheritor. The phrase "once below a time" exemplifies the poet's typical distortion of syntax for poetic effect. The phrase also points to a fairytale existence, and the insignificance of time at that juncture.
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves Trail with daisies and barley Down the rivers of the windfall light.
His relation with the barn is so intimate that he is "famous among the barns". The farmyard is referred to as "happy yard". It is the child that is really happy here. Therefore, the figure of speech utilized by the poet is a 'transferred epithet'. It is only the human mortal that is young only once. Therefore, when the poet says that the sun was young only once, it is as visualized through the young eyes of the child. Time showered his mercy on him and let him be 'golden' and 'green' at the same time. In short, his life was colorful.
Further, Time also helped him assume multiple roles: he was huntsman and herdsman. The calves sang to his horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold. Just as the church bells beckoned people to worship the lord, the sound of the water flowing over the pebbles seemed to summon little Thomas for the worship of Nature. The sanctity of Nature is underlined here.
All the day (sun) long the water kept running smoothly reflecting the pace of life. He goes on with the description of the heavenly farm. The hay grew taller than the house. Smoke went up the chimneys appearing like abstract concretization of tunes. And the fire held a brightness as fiery as the green of the grass. He dreamt in his sleep of horses flashing away into the dark. In his sleep, he dreamt that the owls were carrying the farm away as if on a magic carpet ride. The line could also signify that the conspicuous cries of the owls seemed to divert his attention away from the farm. All the night (moon) long he heard the harsh cries of the nocturnal birds as they flew with haystacks (ricks) as the wind passed through. It reveals the vulnerability of Little Thomas.
As the morning approached, the farm was wet with dew as though it had been wandering throughout the night. The image of the farm at dawn was as fresh and innocent and pure as that of Adam and Eve before the Fall. The sky turned bright yet again, and the sun resumed its roundness as though it was temporarily deflated.
So, the poet adjudges, it must have been after the birth of the simple light. This is an allusion to the Story of Creation in the Genesis1:3. "And God said: Let there be light: and there was light."
The horses, neighing gently, walked as if in a trance, awakened from their slumber. From the warmth of their stable, they moved towards the fields that were filled with praises for their Edenic beauty. He was honored even among the impulsive creature-the foxes and pheasants by the gay house. Note how the poet keeps on making use of 'transferred epithets.' The clouds were fresh as ever as though they were newly manufactured. The heart was so heavy with emotion that it seemed to stretch itself. The sun seemed to be born again and again, as each day passed. The pace of life was not mechanical. He ran heedless, his aspirations competing with the haystacks in their heights. As he traversed the farm under the blue sky, he lived his childhood green and golden as long as Time permitted him to.
In the final paragraph, the speaker expresses that all the liberty was transitory. The pure instinctive rapport he shared with the farm is now polluted by the logic of the reason, and the refinement of adulthood. The unconscious awe and imaginative ruminations no longer exist. Never did he realize that he would arrive at this juncture when once Time held him in the 'lamb-white' purity of its days. The poet comprehends this as a mature adult. He claims that time held him green and dying. These are the two sides of Time (life): though it made him green, endowing him with the gift of youth; it also gave him death, a full stop to that phase.
Change is inevitable, and as he is caught in this cycle of Time, in its chains, he is forced to sing, for the gift of life is infinite in the depth it has to offer, just like the sea. It takes, yet it gives.
Fern Hill
By Dylan Thomas
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.
And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.
And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace,
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
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