FERN HILL
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting 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,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.
And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.
And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace.
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
The Poem “Fern Hill,” taken from the text 18 Poems, is one of Thomas’ most famous and widely read poems. Fern Hill is written in the form of a villanelle, and is classified as the most famous poem written in that manner. A villanelle is A 19-line poem of fixed form consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain on two rhymes, with the first and third lines of the first tercet repeated alternately.
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
In "Do Not Go Gentle" the narrator is telling the poem as if he was a loved one of the person dying and Dylan Thomas tries to convey the message about not dying easily and fighting the whole way. This shows that Thomas's didn't except dying the easy way. This creates a very angry atmosphere, which you do not always associate with a loved one dying. On the other hand in "Sonnet" the narrator is actually the person dying and they are telling a loved one to remember them but not to grieve because they died painlessly. This is a much more stereotypical use of a poem to convey a message about death. This difference is quite strong because I found it much more emotive for the poem coming from someone who was watching someone die because it made me thing about the pain they would be going through where as in "Sonnet" where it is the person who is dying in the poem made me thing about accepting the death of someone and listening to their wishes rather than the pain behind it because that person excepts their own death so why shouldn't we.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a very powerful poem where Dylan Thomas is talking about the death of his father. He is telling his father to hang on and not to leave the light that is life. He tells him it is much more heroic to die fighting rather than to just let death take him. There is a lot of anger in the poem but this doesn't come alive till the poem is read out loud and this is because they poem was written to be performed rather than read. It is a very emotive poem, which makes the reader feel a lot of anger as they experience the poet's resentment.
Thomas uses a lot of repetition in his poem to get his message across mainly of the lines "rage, rage against the dying of the light" and "do not go gentle into that good night" and I feel this works well because no matter what part of the poem you are reading he is always getting his message across. They are both very powerful, with thought provoking lines, which help create the poems' mood. Dylan Thomas' poem is very angry and uses powerful words such as rage and curse. These also add power to the poem. He uses a good many poetic devices such as similes and personification. These all add to the imagery of the poem, which is effective. Rossetti's poem uses much softer words to convey her message, which also works because of the different message she is trying to get across. She uses repetition, mainly of the word 'Remember' which does help you to understand what she is trying to tell the reader. I think Dylan Thomas set out to convey a message about not giving up on anything but especially not on and he certainly gets this point over meaning his poem is very successful. Christina Rossetti tries to get a very different message across and she's trying to help people accept the death of people they loved. Her poem is also effective as it calms and tries to soothe the reader into accepting dying is a part of life and yes we may be sad but we have to learn to live with it, to accept it and to cope with it as life goes on Dylan Thomas' poem made more of an impact on me because it is so much more powerful and I can feel the atmosphere he creates. Also I agree with how he feels and what his poem says which always helps when trying to create an impact. I like the narrator's perspective in Thomas' poem, which is effective in enabling me to empathize with him.