Romanticizing “Fern Hill”

“Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas is a poem that celebrate the whimsy of childhood.  The poem revolves around the focus of how impactful time is in a person’s life, through the eyes of a young boy (Korg).  The boy serves an archetype to the protagonist wandering through life curious about its paradox.  Thomas uses sensual imagery to assist in his contemplation through intellectual understanding (Korg). The main character’s young age balances out the pensiveness of the subject, aiding in the reader’s ability to understand Thomas’ perspective.  This poem is mostly popular for the simple means of romanticism Thomas uses in his poems in order to apply sentiment (Korg).  This healthy collaboration of literary components involve the use of senses to illustrate the common idea of understanding the internal conflict of aging in a word that remains the same.  This poem is special because the details depicted serve as an embellishment to the simplicity of nature and common coming-of-age realizations in the changing of time.  In “Fern Hill,” Dylan Thomas uses the literary element of imagery to romanticize childhood innocence.

The setting of the poem makes the biggest impact on reaching out to the reader’s understanding of what makes this boy’s experience one unlike any other.  Such a sensation can most commonly be portrayed through the wonders of nature.   Such locations as “the heydays of his eyes” and “windfall light” are little more than exuberant, almost jocular, word plays without sustained emphasis (Korg).  They serve as hints to the visible feeling provided towards the beauty of the scenery the boy is experiencing.  Though Thomas takes his cue from the Celtic pre-Christian sense of divinity in nature, he aligns it with the Christian imagery of modern Wales (Bittenbender).  Wales is a beautiful city in Eastern Ireland which most likely assisted in motivation towards the type of scenery being illustrated in the poem. The boy lives in the moment of the carefree reality of his environment, exploring his infinite imagination upheld by age (Thomas).  As a child, there are no limits to what the world around you could potentially be; hence the importance of living in the present of being young and making memories for the story of your life.

As Thomas got older, he began to look back at his life, evidently in his work (Bittenbender). The poem serves as a form of reminiscing on the viewpoint of nature through the perspective of a boy, considering the change in perspective that comes along with age (Bittenbender).  Most importantly, the poem is not written from the boy’s perspective of nature, but from an adult’s perspective of what it was like to experience nature from the eyes of a boy.  This makes all the difference in the sentiment involved in the innocence of the time before the strive for maturity and rite of passage was pursued by Thomas.  The poem mainly strikes as a sentimental piece to those who cherish their youthful past.  The author seems ambivalent about the contribution between effort and inevitability in the concept of time (Bittenbender).  It is very difficult for anyone to understand what the right thing to do is when faced with life’s conundrums that judge you as a person, and Dylan Thomas elaborated on this in the boy’s representation of the common conflict.  The poem also made an impact in his reality when it came to making memories of the worry-free times of his life.  "Fern Hill" was written in memory of his aunt and the time he spent with her, showing the drive he had towards focussing on love and connections with positive things in life (Norris).  This clearly indicates his passion towards his family as a child and his understanding of how time changes the relationships people have and the fragility they face as times moves on.  Although the poem celebrates the lush beauty of a boy’s farm home and his total harmony with that environment, several lines warn of imminent change. In the midst of his joy, the boy is both green and dying (Albert).  Such understanding is referenced in the conclusion of the poem:

“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.” (50-54)

From a broad perspective in poetry, “Fern Hill” is sensational due to its exceptional use of many devices in literature, especially in the form of imagery.  It is an effective use of surrounding descriptions, and the connection between peace and paranoia in the changes of life when observing the environment’s apathy towards human troubles. Therefore, it is important that people remain strong in life’s changes and to not be whisked away in its forceful winds if they are to survive. The literary finesse that was put into making the poem so remarkable is another one of the outstanding features of the story that helped attract readers.  Thomas made a huge impact on the world of the boy through his innovative writing technique that he carefully constructed (Cox).  The free verse of each line holds imagery that even those unfamiliar with such a setting can feel and see with the words used and can relate them to their individual lives somehow.  Dylan Thomas was very careful with each poem that he wrote to properly relay what he was feeling in his work, ultimately only making annual poems (Korg).  This proves that his work was carefully crafted for the flow of each stanza to impact people in a particular fashion meant to be romantic and sentimental for the demographic at hand, which would be adults who look back on their childhood.

This poem was able to catalyze a new angle for artists to create their work on, as well as presenting the angle as a means for viewers to have the ability to channel such a reminiscing emotion towards.  Thomas' work on "Fern Hill" encourages the influence of embracing imagination in later poets (Albert).  This poem was written in the 1940s and assisted in paving the way to continue romanticizing the beauty of the past for many other poets.  Thomas' romanticism was so rudimentary in terms of literary practicality that it drove people towards the subject of realism (Bradley).  Romanticism and realism contrasted each other and classified people in terms of understanding the world. The boy’s experience was reasonable structural in order to sculpt the idea. The realist perspective of the story would be the blunt reality that the boy is at a farm and will, one day, not be a boy anymore. This leaves no room for sentiment, nor emotional connection for the reader, except in terms of accepting the verisimilitude of this happening in life. Thomas chose to romanticize it because it was more of a time to cherish than to belittle as a moment in time, for each moment is precious and at some point should be admired for happening.  Before the responsibility of conforming to a system that loops people into an endless cycle of working for one big unknown cause, everyone has a innate imagination that gives people their own reality to live by. However, there is a moment where a person must chose to be alone on their journey to their dream or to deflect it for the idea of someone more empowered. “Fern Hill” depicts this idea with its incentive to embrace childlike dreaming in a normal world and initializing contemplation of personal potential in society through his literature.

Works Cited

“Biography.” Dylan Thomas, Updated ed. Jacob Korg. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. 1-14. Twayne’s English Authors Series 20. Twayne’s Authors on GVRL. Web. 7 Mar. 2016. Thomas’ poetry was initially him expressing himself in a flow of release. Eventually, he decided to become more meticulous with his language use. Each poem he wrote was carefully constructed. This source helps explain the initiative Thomas put into writing his poem the way he did in terms of how it is to be interpreted through his perspective.

Bittenbender, J. C. “Thomas, Dylan (1914—1953).” British Writers: Retrospective Supplement 3. Ed. Jay Parini. Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2010. 337-352. Scribner Writers on GVRL. Web. 9 Mar. 2016. Nature was very sacred to Thomas. He kept the features of the details of the farm very prevalent in each stanza. Nature was seen as unconditional to anyone and everyone. He also recognizes that nature is vulnerable to man and man’s lack of carefulness to the preservation of the pureness of nature. Understanding the setting portrayed in the poem helps illustrate the feeling the reader is supposed to absorb.

Cox, C. B. Dylan Thomas: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1987. Print. The source explains the use of rhetorical devices to depict an idea. John Ackerman explains how “Fern Hill” shows Thomas’ careful attention towards the poetry to go along with the story properly. Using such methods helped aid in the imagery for the romanticism in his poems.

“Last Poems.” Dylan Thomas, Updated ed. Jacob Korg. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. 91-99. Twayne’s English Authors Series 20. Twayne’s Authors on GVRL. Web. 7 Mar. 2016. “Fern Hill” resembles his other poems in terms of setting and relationships with nature. His words mainly focused on his ability to clearly state what he is trying to convey in his art. Time is personified in the poem, and pointed out as the central focus of the story. The time period is also depicted in the rural setting the child ventures through. The child contemplates an ambivalence between denying and welcoming change in his life. This critique uses more of an understanding of the elements used in the poem to provide sentimental value in the words.

“The Movement: Origins and Influences.” The Movement: British Poets of the 1950s. Jerry Bradley. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. 1-10. Twayne’s English Authors Series 502. Twayne’s Authors on GVRL. Web. 7 Mar. 2016. Thomas was romantic to the point where readers did not feel as if they could relate to his work. David Perkins said, “Dylan Thomas was too relentlessly melodious and rhetorical, making the fifties poets all the more conscious of the morality of plainness. Moreover, they could not recognize their world in the sentimental clichés of Thomas’ “Fern Hill”. These types of critics revolved more around the honesty of realism, polarizing the romantic art frame. This source helps juxtapose romanticism from realism in terms of what angle Thomas is coming from.

Norris, Leslie. “Thomas, Dylan (1914-1953).” Poets: American and British. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1998. 1487-1505. Scribner Writers on GVRL. Web. 3 Mar. 2016. The poem was used to symbolize the actual events in Thomas’ life. The time of the poem had to do with his experiences in his aunt’s farm. The later poem “After The Funeral” related to the passing away.

Thomas, Dylan. “Fern Hill.” Fern Hill. Dylan Thomas. Red Deer, Alberta, Canada: Red Deer College Press, 1946. LitFinder. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

Thomas, Dylan, and Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas Selected Poems, 1934-1952. New York: New Directions, 2003. Print.

“Travelers and Pilgrims: Looking for Love, Purpose, and Fulfillment in Many of the Wrong Places.” Bobbie Ann Mason: A Study of the Short Fiction. Albert Wilhelm. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998. 7-46. Twayne’s Studies in Short Fiction 74. Twayne’s Authors on GVRL. Web. 7 Mar. 2016. The poem challenges the conundrum of living in the moment and looking forward. His childhood is glorified, but obviously is temporary. Therefore the little things that people find joy in should be upheld for as long as possible. This concept inspired other writers to “stop and smell the roses” as well.