Romanticizing “Fern Hill”
Dylan Thomas’ poem “Fern Hill”, celebrates the wonder of childhood. The poem is centered around how time impacts a person, as seen through the eyes a young child (Korg). The boy becomes an archetype as the protagonist explores life with curiosity. Thomas uses imagery that is sensual to support his intellectual understanding. Thomas’ pensiveness is balanced by the young character’s age, which helps readers to grasp his point of view. Thomas’s use of simple romanticism is the main reason for its popularity (Korg). This collaboration of literary pieces uses senses as a way to express the inner conflict of aging. The poem is noteworthy because it uses the images to illustrate the simple nature of life and common growing-up realizations. Dylan Thomas romanticizes innocence through imagery in his poem “Fernhill”.
The setting of this poem has the greatest impact in helping the reader to understand what makes his experience unique. Nature is the most common way to portray such a feeling. These are merely exuberant, almost joking, word games without sustained emphasis. These words are used to convey the feeling of beauty that the boy feels when he is in the landscape. Thomas uses the Celtic pre Christian idea of divinity as a guide, but he also aligns this with the Christian imagery in modern Wales. Wales is located in Eastern Ireland and was likely the inspiration for the landscape described in the poem. The boy explores his imagination in the present moment. The world is limitless for a child. It’s important to live in the moment and make memories that will last a lifetime.
Thomas’s work reflects his reflections on life as he got older (Bittenbender). The poem acts as an evocation of the boy’s view of nature and how that changes with age. This poem was written not from a boy’s point of view, but instead from an adult’s. Thomas was able to capture the innocence and purity of his youth before Thomas began his quest for maturity. The poem is intended to be a piece of sentimental poetry for those who are nostalgic about their younger years. The author seems to be ambivalent on the subject of time, balancing effort with inevitability (Bittenbender). Dylan Thomas explains that it can be difficult to determine the best course of action when facing life’s challenges, which are a reflection on you as an individual. It also helped him to remember the happy times in his life. “Fern Hill”, which was written as a tribute to his aunt and time spent together, demonstrates the desire he felt for love and positive connections in life. It shows his love for his family and how his relationship with them has changed over time. The poem praises the beauty and harmony of the boy’s farm, but several lines also warn of impending change. In his joy, the child is both dying and green (Albert). The poem’s conclusion refers to such understanding.
“I should have heard him flying with the high field
Wake up to a farm where the children have long been gone.
I remember when I was a youngster and so easily manipulated by his means.
I was dying and green for a long time.
Though I sang my chains like the Sea.” (50-54)
“Fern Hills” is an exceptional poem from a literary perspective. Its use of images, and other literary devices, are particularly impressive. It uses surrounding descriptions to show the contrast between the apathy of the environment and the peace of human problems. It is therefore important to remain steadfast in the face of life’s challenges and not to be swept away by its strong winds. A second feature that attracted readers was the literary finesse put into the poem to make it so outstanding. Thomas’ innovative writing style, which he meticulously constructed, had a major impact on the boy’s world (Cox). Each line of the free verse is filled with imagery that can be felt and seen by those who have never been in such an environment. Dylan Thomas wrote only annual poems, and was careful to convey his feelings in each one. It is clear that each line was carefully chosen to create a romantic, sentimental effect on the reader.
The poem catalyzed an angle on which artists can create new work. It also allowed viewers to use the angle to express a similar emotion. Thomas’s “Fern Hills” work encourages later poets, such as Albert, to embrace their imagination. This poem, written in 1940, helped pave the way for other poets to romanticize the past. Thomas’s romanticism had such a rudimentary literary practicality (Bradley) that it made people gravitate towards the subject of realist. Both realism, and romanticism, were used to categorize people based on their worldview. It was necessary to use the boy’s story as a structure in order for it to be shaped. Realistically, the story is based on the fact that the boy lives at a farm, and one day he will no longer be a child. The reader is left with no emotional connection or sentiment except to accept the reality of the situation. Thomas chose this romanticization because it was an important moment to cherish rather than denigrate. Because each moment should be celebrated for what it is. Everyone has an innate imagination, which allows them to create their own reality. There is a point where one must decide whether to follow their dreams alone or deflect them to someone who has more power. In “Fern Hill”, the author encourages us to have a childlike imagination in an adult world. He also aims to make people think about their potential as individuals.
