Fern Hill

In reading "Fern Hill," it might be helpful to keep in mind Wordworth's "We Are Seven" and Hopkins' "Spring and Fall"--for this poem, like those, is about our obliviousness to death in early youth. Focus on how Thomas gets this idea across, paying close attention to the words and images. Also, read this poem ALOUD, and focus too on what makes this unrhymed poem so powerfully poetic.

The poem still had an interesting rhythm to it without the rhyming. I feel like it might relate to their being similar sounds, alliteration, but subtly and the repeated use of certain words. “Trail with daisies and bar’ley’…. And as I was green and care’free’…. Time let me play and ‘be’….” Then there is the repetition of certain words, like green. Green here shows both the green and pleasantness of this scene as well as the naivety that goes with youth. In the end, green is mentioned in relation to death and time, so perhaps there it’s more relatable to the green of eroded brass like on a watch. Golden is also repeated, expressing the joy of youth and the enjoyment of naivety. You can’t be brought down by things you don’t know about. Unlike the other two poems we’ve read, this is the narrator looking back at their youth and seeing it with new eyes. He sees the joy he held, and he says the carefree state. While the others suggest that one day this state will change, for the speaker here it already has.

Decent on the poetics here, but also note the syllable counts in the lines:-)

Decent, too on the green and golden, but on the "tarnish" thing, not--see the last lines.

Great on the different focus/adress of this as compared to the others.

BUT--how does this poem affect you?

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

In responding to "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower," discuss how it illustrates what the Editors say on p. 2444: "Thomas saw the workings of biology as a magical transformation producing unity out of diversity, and again and again in his poetry he sought a poetic ritual to celebrate this unity." Also discuss the meaning of the repeated phrase, "And I am dumb to tell."

You can see the fusion easily here. The speaker takes scientific explanations and gives them an almost magical air. He does not say why such a thing is so, just that it is so and it does this. “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower//Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees//Is my destroyer.” This natural force that brings flowers to grow and bloom he equates to the natural forces that age the human body. The concept makes excellent sense, as a plant doesn’t just bloom, it must age first from a seedling. “And I am dumb to…” I feel suggests that the speaker feels almost silly making these suggestions, that such natural things could not be so related to the human body or condition, and yet they are. The final two lines sum this up I feel. “And I am dumb to tell the lover’s tomb//How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.” Suggesting that the speaker is still aging and already in a sense decaying much like the already dead.

Interesting on the science angle here--definitely 20th-century stuff, but in an almost Biblical tone.
Good on the life force angle, but see my replies to Ash and Erica (and all) on the "I am dumb to tell."