Fern Hill is an auto biographical poem

Question : Discuss the theme of childhood Dylam Thomas’s poem “Fern Hill”.

Or, Discuss how Dylam Thomas recreates childhood in “Fern Hill”.

Or, “Fern Hill” is a poem about the reflection Dylam Thomes’s childhood.

Or, “Fern Hill” is an auto biographical poem. Discuss.

Answer:

The poem ‘Fern Hill’ by Dylam Thomas gives us a vibit idea about the childhood memories of the poet. In his childhood days the poet spent his time in the “Fern Hill” of his punt in the ‘Fern Hill’ area. At that time, the poet enjoyed complete liberty in moving to and fro. Those sweet days of childhood were source of endless joy. In this poem, the poet creats a magic spell over child’s vision of the world. This poem embodies a sense pathos at the lose of childhood memories.

 In those days the poet used to move among joyous thing that live can offer. He used to pass his childhood time among things and persons. The persons were cordial. The things were very derar to him.He had been with his play mates. He enjoyed all the delight of child’s fantasies. There was then the flood of joy and happiness in the mind of the boy. Dylam Thomeas who used to move through the lances of the farm would derive innocent joy and pleasures. The boy leads carefree and comfortable life under the apple bough. The boy use to discover a mysterious sound in the bough. It seemed to the boy that the boughs themselves were singing sweet notes songs.

“Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs

About the litting house and happy as the grass was green,

The night above the dingle starry,

Time let me hail and climb

Golden in the heydays of his eyes,”

The poet, often would walk though the grass. Walking through the grass, he would derieve intense and pleasure. Actually the grass, to the poet, was a symbol of youthful energy. The days of his childhood in the “Fern Hill” were very delightful blouse of the gracious attention and neersing of the lap of nature time. Time shaped him and provides him with golden opportunity to move in the lap of nature like a prince. This is reflected in the following lines–

“The night above the dingle starry,

Time let me haid and climb

Golden in the heydays of his eyes,

And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns.”

The boy who is now grown up was once cordially add gladly excepted by the wagons drivers bereave the drivers love this boy passenger. The boy, at that time, would imagine himself as a prince. He felt and elected and delighted being in the midst of nature. In his boyhood the boy was full of energy and he had youthful vigour and vitality. He used to move in the form singing happy song, as he enter the fern where his dear home. At that time, the poet had the warmth of youth his life was as the green grass. In his childhood the poet enjoyed the warmth of sunlight with full satisfaction. In his childhood, in the fern the boy was extremely happy it was the golden period of his life. The boy played the game of “Hunts man and hard man” when he used to move in the free kingdom of nature. He would move as a hunter and as a pherd. He used to enjoy the melodious sound mode by calves. The poet resoluteness himself as a hunter when he rans after the foxes. His moving in the forest would make romantic a sound which was actually made by the murmuring of the leaves.

The poet, in his childhood, had a holy mind the Sunday was holy day to him. On Sunday he use to hear the sound of the church belt. He would also hear the sounds of the flowing sleams over the pebbles. The mingled sound would produce serene feelings in the mind of the poet. This is actually a religious touch in the mind of the poet. The poet says–

“And the Sabbath rang slowly

In the pebbles of the holy streams.”

The poet would move in the farm all day long in a jolly mind. He would look at the smokes that would come out from the chimneys creating and prodvcing sweet music sound. He would look up world in the air and use to enjoy the curling smokes. He use to play in the lovely and watery field with the green grass. He would enjoy the story night.

The poet would sleep at night in the farm .At that time fancy hunted him. He was than in his boy is fantasy. Time lifted him to a great world of fantasy. It seemed to his childish imagination that the farm of his quint was being carried a way by the owls. It seemed to the poet that he was in the fantasy kingdom. It seemed to the poet the nights jars were plying with rain and horses were running quickly in the darkness coming out of the stubby less. All these materials were for a boy to creat a myth of childhood. Actually it was a dream of the poet in his childhood, because everything is possible in the vision of a child. Such visions may have reality on not.

The fantasy of the night, when the poet would woke up in the morning, because he would find the farm in its original location. The poet would compare the farm to a wonderer who had the habit room about during the night and came back to its original places at the down covered with dews. The farm was also thought to have carried back by crowning cock on his shoulder. In the morning when the poet would woke up whole scene reminded him of the happy atmosphere of adam and eve in the garden of Eden. In the morning the sight of the farm was very enjoyable to the boy poet. In the farm the boy was carefree. He would run heedlessly without any restriction.

The poet is now grown up the days of his childhood have gone a way. The poet is now chained by responsibilities. Things have been change a round him. The poet in his grown up age he is tide up by the rope of duties and responsibilities. But he does not forget to sing the glory of life.

The over all tone of the poet in the poem ‘Fern hill’ is that of joy celebrating childhood memories. The poet has idealized his childhood. The voice of the poem is clearly full of excrement and rapture. Though there are under tone of decaying adulthood, the poem opens his joy and exuberance. The poem closes with a note of deep pathos. The poet ends the poem saying–

“Time held me green and dying

Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”