Fern Hill

Fern Hill

THEME(S): Childhood, Loss of Innocence.

Things to look for: repetition of words (you should circle all the words that repeat).

Stanza and line structures. There is a parallel structure set up stanza by stanza: example line one in stanza one parallels line one of every following stanza; Line two in stanza one parallels line two in every following stanza; line three parallels line three in every following stanza and so on. This parallelism reflects not just line length but also the ordering and repetition of words and grammar [think syntax] as well as the thoughts, ideas contained within each line. You might think about how this parallelism reinforces theme? Also think about what the long lines do (example: the stretch of time and energy, versus the short lines which could reinforce youth or something young and small).

Personification - TIME is personified in this poem. Why? What are some of the things time does?

Allusions: Adam and Eve - the fall of grace, Paradise, Eden (there are apples around though not directly mentioned in the poem). Fern Hill is an actual place. This could be important. Is Fern Hill the name of a farm? Does it symbolize anything beyond this place?

Alliteration, Assonance, Internal Rhyme, Slant Rhymes: There are a lot of sounds going on in this poem. What do this sounds do? What ideas do they reinforce? You can connect these internal sounds to the sounds of the things on the farm and the sounds of youth. Also, Dylan Thomas believed poetry should be heard. This poem is meant to be read aloud.

Colors: What colors show up? Symbolically what do these colors represent?

Animals - what animals appear? Do they represent anything?

Punctuation - you can tell the turn of the poem by playing attention to the punctuation (and the tone shift) of each stanza. The turn comes at the end of stanza five (if you didn't catch it).

Tone: What is the tone of the poem. Note there is a tone shift in stanza four (on the line "So it must have been after the birth of the simple light") and at the end of the poem (end of stanza 5 and stanza 6).

It's argued that this poem is influenced by a Welsh form called the cynghanedd. Dylan Thomas should also remind you of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

PARALLELISM (a definition): a rhetorical figure used in written and oral compositions since ancient times to accentate or emphasize ideas or images by using grammatically similar constructions. Words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and even larger structural units may be consciously organized into parallel constructions, thereby creating a sense of balance that can be meaningful and revealing. Authors or speakers implicitly invite their readers or audiences to compare and contrast the parallel elements.

An example from Charles Dickens A TALE OF TWO CITIES

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

An brief interpretation of "Fern HIll" from bachelorandmaster.com follows:

Fern Hill is an autobiographical poem in which Dylan Thomas uses the memories of childhood days in order to explore the theme of journey from innocence to experience. The theme is based on William Blake’s division the world of experience and it is reinforced through the use of Wordsworthian double consciousness. The poem can be divided into two parts: at the first three stanza re related to the poets experience as a child when he uses to spend his summer holidays at his uncle’s farm (Fern Hill, it is in Wan sea in Wales) but the last three stanzas are about an awakening in the child which signifies the loss of the world of innocence. At the center of this loss of the innocence are the myths of fall of the first human beings (Adam and Eve).
The world of innocence (child) as described in the first three stanzas is like the Garden of Eden. This is a world in which the child is in complete union with the nature. This world of fantasy offers the child an Edenic bliss. The way Thomas describes this world; it appears to be timeless world without sense of loss and decay.
In the third stanza the poet slowly moves towards the transition between the world of innocence and the world of experience. In the forth stanza the speaker’s sleeping is a symbolic sleeping which ends a flashing into the dark. This flashing is a kind of awakening as hinted by the first line of the fourth stanza. In this awakening the child (speaker) initiates into the world of maturity. “Sleeping” in the poem is symbolic that refers to the loss of innocence that equates the Adam and Eve who had slept after fall form the Grace of God. This initiation of the world of maturity entails the loss of Edenic bliss, innocence, grace and freedom. Moreover poet loses creative imagination and fantasies in which a union with nature was possible.
In the last stanza the poet once again contemplates on the memoirs of his childhood but this time the awareness, becomes dominant. In the last line the poet refers to his chained situation in the world of experience. Now he is in chain, green color is withered now.
So, this poem is the journey from childhood to manhood when the manhood comes, the man suffers form an agony. Now I am not what I was in the past. The use of verb “song” hints that the losses can be captured through art in the last line stanza.

This performance by actor Richard Burton should help you pick out the tone changes - and make the poem come alive for you.