Mikey Holder
English Literature Coursework
What views of life and death does Dylan Thomas hold, and how effectively does he convey them?
Dylan Thomas expresses many different views of life and death and also displays some complex methods which prove to be quite effective throughout his poetry. All the poems in this booklet immediately struck me with intelligence and it amazed me at how effectively he had written this complex poetry with such deep meaning. A main view expressed in three of these poems is that childhood is slowly ticking by, and soon everyone is going to grow up, and that the innocence and fun of being a child, will soon be lost.
‘The Hunchback in the park,’ is quite a good poem for conveying this message. The poet compares his own childhood, to how this hunchback looks, and a large and effective contrast is seen from this. For the poet, the park was a place of fun when he was a child, but now that time has passed, and he looks at the hunchback, whose home is the park. ‘Innocent as strawberries,’ is my favourite line in the poem because it is the clearest suggestion of childhood and innocence not lasting long, and that just like a strawberry, the fresh taste and flavour is soon lost. Fern Hill also included a lot of suggestions that childhood is drawing to an end. He remembers his childhood, and whilst recalling the past, he injects playfulness into the language of the poem, because this sublime poem is all about innocence and playfulness. He says on the first line ‘young and easy,’ suggesting that childhood is an easy time, and also includes lots of metaphors such as ‘ happy as the grass was green,’ and also words such as a maiden. Using the word maiden, suggests that the same way a virgin is fresh, so is a child. In Poem 6, the words ‘green age,’ suggest a young, fresh person full of life, and this can be linked to both Fern Hill, and The Hunchback in the park, because they also express the vitality of childhood.
Another view of life and death is the thought of life slowly going as time progresses on. This point is so true, and Thomas really expresses it clearly within his complex poetry, especially in ‘Do not go gentle into that good night,’ ‘Fern Hill,’ and Poem 6. In ‘Do not go gentle into that good night,’ he says how life is so important to make an impact on the world, and that even wise men don’t go easy into death, because their words have not made the impact on the world as they expected them to. It says ‘though wise men at their end know dark is right,’ which supports this. He tells his father to go with aggression and determination, and that he should not give in to death’s command. We can also see the very same view appearing in Fern Hill, especially from the words ‘time let me.’ We see that time was being merciful and that time gave him permission to continue living. It is as if the farm that he has lived on during his childhood, will no longer be home anymore, and that the ease of being young will be lost, as the time ticks by. However, although these poems convey this message very clearly, Poem 6, is the strongest conveyer of the message, and it conveys it through the words ‘ the lips of time leech to the fountain head.’ This is because of the old technique that was used to get rid of infected blood was a leech placed on the infected area. It relates to life being sucked out of us every second that we live, which is why this phrase is such a clever view of how life is being taken from us.
