Explication of
Thomas's Youthful Nostalgia in "Fern Hill" In "Fern Hill" Dylan Thomas deals with the age-old dilemma of growing up. Thomas's youthful, carefree outlook is expressed through his description of the farmwhere he spent his youth. The poet uses nine six-line stanzas to illustrate the naivete heexperienced when he was a boy. Thomas, now a grown man, can tell his readers inretrospect about his youthful ignorance regarding the process of time. In the first stanza the reader is introduced to life through young Thomas's eyes. He uses personification to describe the house as "lilting" (2). As the boy frolics throughthe yard, it seems to him that the house is springing and moving. This introduces theboy's acceptance of his own interpretation of life. His mind is untainted by the outsideworld. He goes on to use assonance to ask time to let him "hail and climb" (4). Hewishes time to let him stay the way he is. Thomas uses the words "honored", "prince"and "lordly" to describe his feeling of faith and hope in his own potential
Although a natural reaction to the author's retrospection would be regret for notknowing that he had only a limited time to enjoy himself, the poet does not express afeeling of regret. The word "green" is repeated along with the word "golden",both words stressing his youthfulness (15). Thomas compares the morning on the farm to the beginning of the world aswritten in the Bible in Genesis. Time is personifiedwhen Thomas asks it to let him remain young and naive, even though the sun "is youngonce only" (12). As a grown man, Thomascan now see that all the while, time had been working it's way even though he wasoblivious to it. In Stanza two, we first see the word "green" that is repeated many times in thispoem. He cares solittle about it that he does not take the time to understand it. Although the reader's childhood experience may not have been spent on a farm,familiar metaphors of nature make it possible for readers of all backgrounds to relate tothe theme of this poem. The haystack metaphor is repeated to stress his naive outlook. Stanza six repeats his carefree attitude towards his own immortality. He knows now that his time as aboy was limited, and the time can never be regained. Thomas chooses to remain ignorant to the workings of time and theimmortality of the world. He believes he will be born again every morning along with the sun. Thomas uses the hay stacks as ametaphor for the boy's youthful hope.
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