poem Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas not one of his best poems as far as I'm concerned but probably one of his most well-known I would say his most well-known poem and arguably the better of the two is Do Not Go Gentle into that good night I think a lot more people will know about that one and this is also one of those ones that's incredibly long and it's just his way of writing but you kind of got to think to yourself I'm pretty sure you could have said all of that in a much shorter space with far fewer words but anyway just a little bit about Dylan Thomas um it was Welsh born in 1914 left schooled age of 16 to go and be a reporter for newspaper which he wasn't too happy about me decided to leave that what is interesting is that he wrote most of his poetry around or between the ages of 18 to 20 and his ability to write in a way that is quite unique it's almost musical very often he writes in in a way that the words are almost lyrical you know it's like a song um to be able to write like that which is this is a good example of at such a young age is really really impressive um he also wrote a lot of plays scripts for radio even movie scripts um also worked as a broadcaster narrated over 200 broadcasts um unfortunately he died quite young just 39 years old um and he says about his own writing technique that and I quote I make one image I let perhaps an image be made emotionally in me and then I apply to it what intellectual and critical forces I possess let it breed another let that image contradict the First make of the third image spread out of the other two together a fourth contradictory image and let them all within my imposed formal limits conflict so I assume you've already read the poem but a very simple summary is it's about the speaker thinking back to his childhood and how wonderful it was and how naive he was and Tom Sent to just um not be running out for him it just seemed to be one day after the next same old playing having fun all on this Farm known as Fern Hill and he's reflecting back on that time and how how such a wonderful time it was but now that he's an adult he's no longer carefree and he has all these responsibilities and all these challenges and his naivety due to maturity and experience has gone and there's a sense of mournfulness and regret in a sense that he didn't realize when he was a child that it would ever end just to give you a little bit more detailed summary we can say that the poem describes a joyful memory of a garden of eden-like setting on a farm you can think of the Garden of Eden as this sort of um magical Paradise the child or the speaker here as a child is the prince and in his play and his imagination everything is under his control and time is personified time stands still allows him to have his innocence day in and day out when he goes to sleep at night he's carried away in his dreams only to be returned to another Perfect Day in the morning and this idyllic picture of childhood unfortunately gives way in around line 40 as the speak is heedless of time he's not understanding that time will move on and change and of course run out for him one day childhood is allowed but eventually that time of Grace must end it talks about um being in the chains of adulthood and reality in the final stanza the speaker reflects as an adult that he had to wake up to a childhood that has fled it has gone even when the speaker was young Tom time as I said personified held the power and he was an unknowing prisoner in the chains of time childhood must give way to the movement of time so you think about you yourself every person has an opportunity to be a child for a certain length of time as you see if I can get this better in focus it's about as good as it gets um but that all has to come to an end but when you are a child you don't actually realize that there's a limit to your childhood and that time is ticking it time is allowing you for now to be a child but it's not always going to be that way so as I said the poem is quite daunting in the fact that it's very long and the wording and the syntax in other words the arrangement of words can be quite confusing um although the message the main Narrative of the poem is pretty simple um It Was Written in around 1946 if I'm not mistaken and it is actually this Fern Hill here is actually a form on which Dylan Thomas's mother grew up and which used to visit quite a lot as a boy the clarity of the detail in his memory of the form paints this picture for the reader and you know I said at the beginning that it's one of those poems that can be written for shorter space but um the reason why he elongates it this way is because he uses a lot of figurative language and a lot of emotion and intensity of his whole experience to to create this image in our minds the line lengths are very different the longer line stretch time out very often while the shorter lines seem to kind of hurry it along and create a sort of screenshot moment so um the first word of the poem now kind of plunges us into the present moment of the speaker's memory it is now so the speaker is remembering being a young boy playing under the apple trees and easy with no care so now as I was young and easy Carefree so it's reflecting Under The Apple bows bows another word for branch so under the branches of the apple trees about the lilting house and happy as the grass was green so the grass is green so therefore I was happy okay so he's saying he was very happy we've got a transferred epithetia with the lilting house because lilting is my my adjective and there's my noun house but in actual fact it's not the house that's joyful I'm singing that's all Pleasant it's actually the people inside the house that were happy and joyful okay um we've got grasses green and we think okay wow use the word green we see it a little bit later on as well green has got connotations of Youth innocence and experience naivety the night above the Dingle the valley the trees in it story lots of stars fold the night sky time let me hail and climb golden in the heydays of his eyes I'm not going to go through every single word here we'll be here all day but um what you just need to know is that here's time personified that marks it in green and personification of marked in green a little bit way down as well he's saying that time was in control and it was time that said okay you want your childhood fine here's your childhood and so I could do all sorts of things I could have fun I could climb it was golden in the hey days of his eyes so that means it was the best of times it was golden also the heydays referred to your best days but also it was Autumn if we think about Autumn the leaves going brown and yellow giving that golden color the reason why I mentioned that is you'll see now and honored among wagons I was Prince of the Apple towns so because he's in this farming Community there and it was at the time period 1940s there would have been a lot of wagons going around with fruit on them and that and either the people around him because he was a kid would Praise Him and talk nicely to him and maybe call him hey Prince of the Apple towns um or it was maybe his own imagination that's what he used to think he was the prince of these towns that had all these apple trees and and one of course it's a metaphor because he's not really a prince and once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves trail with daisies and barley so all the trees were full of all these flowers and so all this imagery here and there's a lot of imagery it's all creating the idea that this is like a paradise um you know when you are when you think back too long ago when you were a child and you have a a positive memory there you you will focus on the good things you will focus on the niceties and you will not only ignore maybe the negatives that were there but you will glorify the positives so that that memory becomes even better than what it actually was so um he's creating that image here but it's not just Fern Hill the farm that's so great it's actually his life and his childhood and being innocent and naive that was so great so down the rivers of the windfall light okay windfall here um windfall means like if you win the lotto let's say and you'll get a lot of money you say wow that was great windfall it's kind of like unexpected but has a positive connotation so maybe um it's like the light wasn't necessarily going to break through all those days he's in Bali and onto the river okay not quite sure but um the message really here is that he felt like a prince and that he was looking over and ruling the trees and the rivers and the light from the sun Etc and as I was green and carefree so here he continues again I was green so we've got the the green there and the green there I was naive and I didn't have anything to worry about I was famous among the bonds okay so in his imagination most probably you know um in line with this I was the prince he thought as well that he was this great famous person and everybody knew him and of course being a child the people would have entertained that as well about the happy yard and singing as the farm was home in the Sun that is Young once only okay so Farm was home when he was at Fern Hill he believed that farm was where he felt at peace that was where he belonged and that was what he called home of course it was a great place if he was able to in his imagination play like this as a child and also being completely oblivious to what adults were actually dealing with at that time you know when you're a child you don't you're so oblivious to what the adult world and reality is is that you don't see the negatives and adults aren't going to delve to you what the negatives are so as far as you are concerned it was a great place in the Sun that is Young once only time let me play again time being controlling here time pulling the strings time allowing giving you the opportunity to play as a child and be golden there's the golden again golden in the mercy of his means and green green got it again also emphasizing the fact that the place was actually green and fertile and golden there's golden again I was Huntsman and herdsmen so when he was playing around I'd stay on the farm he could pretend that he was a huntsman and he would go chasing all the wild foxes and and the birds Etc we hear later on um so he was you know in charge of all the land he was Master of the animals or sometimes he pretended he was herdsmen and he imagined that he was the hero and he had all these animals under his care and he was looking after them the calves sang to my horn the foxes on the heels barked clear and cold and the Sabbath ran the Sabbath the Sunday the church bells that were probably heard in the distance rang slowly in the Pebbles of the Holy streams okay now we've got interesting imagery here so we've got literal church bells ringing okay and the fact that it's holy and the church and the Sabbath all create peace tranquility goodness but also the way that the water would have run because we've got Rivers here the way the water would have run over the pebbles in the streams kind of was like a song as if as if that water running over those Pebbles was praising God and and saying we recognize that this is God's creation we are God's creation and if I had to say to a child um describe heaven to me they're probably going to describe a similar setting where everything is just perfect you know the grass is bright green and the Sun is golden and the birds are tweeting and we've got these nice gentle streams flowing over all of a sudden long it was running okay all of a sudden long it was running it was it was lovely the hay feels high as the house so the sun long it was running so the sun is almost running away in other words it's getting less and less time each day because we're moving away from Autumn and we're going to Winter now as you probably guessed winter is going to represent adulthood um and that's what we're slowly moving towards but he says they're just an interjection you know it was lovely and the hay feels high as the house so they were harvesting all the hay the the hay bales were being stacked and there was so much of it there was an abundance it was as high as the house this pile the tunes from the chimneys it was air usually you're going to see smoke coming out of chimneys but that's not going to really assist me in creating a nice atmosphere so I'm rather gonna say the tunes from the chimneys so inside the houses people laughing people cheering singing having fun and that's um coming out almost of the chimneys it was air and playing lovely and watery and fire green and grass he never stopped playing even when it was cold even when it was raining and all these and and here is just like he's almost excited about um reliving and just reminiscing it's nostalgic thinking back to this time and nightly under the simple Stars we've got a bit of alliteration there as well and we've heard about the Stars already um earlier on their Dingle story um as I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away so he's imagining that the entire form is being carried away into Dreamland by the owls a bit of a strange image to me but you get the idea of what he's trying to get across here all the moon long I heard so the whole night throughout the whole night I heard blessed among Stables the horses the night Jaws birds that had obviously uh made a home in the Stables probably flying with the Ricks and the horses um flashing into the dark so the rixia is short for herricks or Haystacks okay um flying with the Ricks and the horses we heard about the Stables flashing in the dark so the eyes of the horses would sometimes give a bit of a flash in the darkness as they they catch the Light of the moon or nearby to the reflecting again three stanzas in great imagery feels happy feels blessed he feels free doesn't have anything to worry about stanza four and then two a week and so hang on does it change so and then to awake but just bear with me and the form like a wanderer white with the Dew come back now we've almost like we've gone into winter now okay so it's almost as if you're you've gone to sleep as a child and you've woken up to maturity and of course that's not literal but what it means is that you don't necessarily you know it's not one defining moment you know you you're a child and you're you think you're still a child and then suddenly you realize I'm not a child anymore but it's not an instantaneous thing but the extended metaphor here is that you're going to go to sleep and then you're going to wake up into winter when you look outside and look it literally looks like winter but that means that your childhood is over and you can never get it back interesting illusion here to the Betrayal of Jesus and the on his shoulder it was all shining it was Adam and Maiden the sky gathered again and the sun grew around that very day so a rooster crows in the Bible when Jesus is betrayed so it's almost as if time allowed me to have this wonderful childhood but then I suddenly woke up and realized that my childhood was over and and I was no longer naive and I was no longer carefree and I've almost been cheated and that rooster um There is almost as if time has said right I allowed you to have your childhood but um time is up now the biblical illusion continues here with Adam and Maiden so he's saying the time that he spent as a child on the farm is compared to when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and and Fernhill is like the Garden of Eden in that it is just perfect it is God's best creation the sky gathered again and the sun grew round brightly the very day so it must have been after the birth of the simple light and he's in the first I'll come back to that spinning place the Spellbound horses walking warm out of the winning Green stable onto the fields of Praise what he's trying to say here is that all although he's no longer a child and that he's matured um it looks nature looks the same everything looks the same and it's as if the first day when God said let there be light and there was the birth of that light in the first spinning place when Earth first started spinning and I still have those horses walking around winning I still have that luscious green there The Stables the fields of praise so it's all still there or you can say you know what um because the law stance is really the punch what he's trying to say is that the speaker is saying um I lost my train of thought now oh when you are a child you think that it's going to just never end you know the sun sets and it rises again and you have another great day and it sets and rises again you don't realize that there's a ticking clock and that it's coming to an end then we get to the fifth stanza and honored among foxes and pheasants type of bird by the gay horse the the sorry the gay house the house was filled with joy we've got the same idea that we spoke about earlier with the Tunes coming from the chimneys and that okay so we've got this wonderful playful joyful house so the imagery is still positive but under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long I was so happy again just as we got here in the first stanza happy as the grass was green I've got happy as the heart was long in in the sun born over and over so it's the same thing the same day as a child it was great got Nostalgia here thinking about it I ran my heedless ways I enjoyed myself as a child I ran and I didn't think that's thoughtless there I didn't think that what I was doing meant anything you know I was in this perfect place and I was just loving every minute of it now now I think back God I wish I could go back to that I wish I could relive that but as we know he can't my wishes race through the house hi hey his wishes seem to be fulfilled as quickly as the stacks of hay grew anything that I wanted I could have and nothing I cared I didn't care about anything and that's not a negative connotation he's saying I had nothing to care about at my scar blue trades all the activities that I was doing the time allows that time allows um I actually haven't highlighted that but that's also personification there because time is giving him permission in all his tuneful turnings so few and such morning songs before the children green and golden follow him out of Grace So time allowed for this day to go over and over and all these fun activities to happen and anything that I wanted to do I could do it and Tom gave me that opportunity I had these wonderful mornings and all the children young and naive could do all those wonderful things but we time decided that Tom you know that was enough he he said all the children had to follow him out of Grace out of Innocence out of um naivety to become aware of reality and to enter to enter adulthood this is the law stanza that we're busy with now um nothing I cared so I didn't have anything to care about as I said it kind of feels like he says the same thing over and over but it's just the way he writes in the lamb white days those days were so white they were lamb white now usually a lamb is symbolic of Jesus or symbolic of Purity or innocence so those days were so innocent as a kid that time would take me because now Tom is actually in charge here time is calling her shots and it would take me up to the swallow thronged Loft would take me up there to The Loft um a loft being kind of like the upper level in the barn many of the swallows that were there by the shadow of my hand in the Moon that is always Rising so you know no matter whether I'm in childhood or adult to the Moon is always Rising nor that riding to sleep I should hear him fly with the high Fields so literally he could hear the swallows flying or figuratively he goes to sleep without any worries and wake and there we come again where I said earlier wake up to adulthood um here and then to wake to maturity and to out of childhood into adulthood so he's kind of got this regretful tone here by saying and wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land no no longer will I ever as a child be able to be part of that land and experience what I experienced whether I like it or not and you know that's one common theme and trait that everybody experiences and it's very difficult to see when you're a child or a teenager but as you progress into adulthood you you seem to more and more think fondly of your childhood as you become accustomed with what reality and adult life contains oh and now it's just like an expression of emotion as I was young and Easy in the mercy of his means okay I was young and easy life was so easy in the mercy of his means when time allowed me to be he gave me mercy time held me green time kept me innocent and and happy and dying though I sang in my chains like the sea but now I'm no longer a child and and time has and the fact that I've experienced all that I have over the years have put me in chains that I am chained now into adulthood and I cannot Escape it and the chains being you know is like imprisonment can't move it's it's not a positive message there the the negative of being stuck and unable to escape you can't escape being an adult you know you can't go back so like the sea that's similarly there which I've all highlighted in yellow all the similes is showing because the sea is so great and so vast is that his feelings are he can't um categorize them or describe them simply also the depth of his Despair and his longing for childhood and the memory the great memory that he has of being on the farm at Fern Hill if we look at the tone we can see it's reflective okay it's definitely reflecting on his life and on his childhood because we saw a strong transition from child to adult and also the interactions with time how does time allow him to be a child how does it eventually call him to reality also nostalgic as well we mentioned that thinking fondly back to your youth the mood you know the first four stanzas how we feel it's quite lilting which is actually a word um in the second line of the poem it's light-hearted it's Carefree it's please don't use the word happy but it's it's a pleasant joyful time but then stanza five especially around line 40 or so it becomes quite regretful and you know I don't know regretful quite the right word because um it's inevitable you know you can't stop it there's nothing you could have done to stop becoming an adult but I think maybe what he means by regretful is that when you are a child you don't realize what you have and you don't maybe take it in and appreciate it as much as you could and just to end off I'll say that time is an extended metaphor for the inevitable passing of innocence and inevitable inevitable because well everybody does it and it cannot be stopped so as long a poem as it is it's not too difficult to understand um I think that what is important is that you don't get hung up on every single word and the way the words are arranged in the sentences because that can be a little bit overwhelming um but I hope this has helped uh helped you have a better understanding of the poem