Here I’m sharing poem “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.
Dylan Thomas spent the memorable and pleasant days of his youth at fern hill. In this poem the poet praises his life spent Fern hill as a youth and than laments the days which are no more.
The poem start with a tone of happiness and joy
“If you are happy and you know it; think again!!”.
The poet sets the mood for the rest of the poem by personifying the house and he says “so was the house singing!”
The poet then gives the pestoral scenery with serves like a mirror of the speakers joy.time enters the poem ,time even has eyes,ears and the poet personifies time an suggests that time is happy to see the poet so young and care free the poet is aware of the passing time an nknows that the heavy days at his life wilnot last long.
In line six the poet continues praising the good old days calling himself a prince,the poet felt lke a young powerfull prince with world and his figure tips.An he remembers how things were easy ,beautiful and awesome when he was young.
Dylan Thomas does not followed the traditional poetic form or structure ,instead the crested a unity betweens stanzas by using the ideas like;youthfulness,happieness,carefreeness and singing much about the pastral imagery.In this line he writes:
” And green and golden I was
Hunts man and herds man “
Then the poet talks about the landscape with such reverence that he believes it to be secret this secretness of the pestral landscape are found in line 17 and 18:
“And the Sabbath rang slowly,
In the pebbles of the holly streams.’
The poet has used many sonic repetitions and the long “E” Sound –green, be ,means, streams, happy, carefree etc.
The poet continues to explain what it was like being young at Fern hill find the long, pleasant exiting days there in(line 20,he describes thus,
All the sun long it was running, it was lovely the hay
Fields as the house the tunes from the chimneys, it was air.
The poet further maintain the pastoral imagery with anaphora in the lines 21 to 23 were he explain the time again and again in the past
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass
And nightly under the simple stars
The poet then metaphorically compares Fern hill to the Garden of Eden an talks about the Adam and eve. He gives a religion imagery an remember how the farm in the morning looks like gods on creation.
In the last line the poet goes into a mood of regret an he says that the time is fleeting it goes on he has to return back to reality the poet gives a biblical reference an a parallel of Adam and eve story and syas that just like Adam and eve were cast out of paradise, the poet with all other young Keats was cast out of a state of joy, happiness and grace by time and he just did not care and realize that time was going to swoop in an it would take away his childhood ,his care freeness and the joyful movement at Fernhill.
We find a mood shift in the last stanza when the poet wake up to the poet remembers the bygone days which are nomore thus the poet speaks about the follies of youth an he brings the imagery of the see an concludes that he was at the mercy of times.
Thank u….
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