Explication of

A detailed Summary of 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 farm

where he spent his youth. The poet uses nine six-line stanzas to illustrate the naivete he

experienced when he was a boy. Thomas, now a grown man, can tell his readers in

retrospect 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 through

the yard, it seems to him that the house is springing and moving. This introduces the

boy's acceptance of his own interpretation of life. His mind is untainted by the outside

world. He goes on to use assonance to ask time to let him "hail and climb" (4). He

wishes 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

the theme of this poem. Thomas successfully instills a sense of appreciation for the time

is finite. He believes he will be born again every morning along with the sun. The hay

once only" (12). Thomas chooses to remain ignorant to the workings of time and the

line twenty-three to reiterate a carefree, simple ideal. Thomas uses the hay stacks as a

little about it that he does not take the time to understand it. As a grown man, Thomas

ignorance of the world. Thomas is unaware of the tremendous complexity of the stars,

youth. Thomas compares the morning on the farm to the beginning of the world as

when Thomas asks it to let him remain young and naive, even though the sun "is young

open the second stanza with the words "green and carefree" (10). Time is personified

Approximate Word count = 710
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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