Read "Fern Hill"
The Speaker's Memory
The first line states that he was “young and easy under the apple boughs,” and the second line continues to reveal the youth’s location and subject of his discourse, which continues through the first verse paragraph.
First Verse Paragraph - "Honored among wagons"
The poem consists of six verse paragraphs with nine lines each. The first verse paragraph introduces the speaker and his take on his memory of how he was back in those days of his youth. In addition to being “young and easy,” the speaker seemed to have a control over his environment: he was “honored among wagons, “he was “prince of the apple towns,” and he “lordly had the trees and leaves / Trail with daisies and barley.” He easily moved through this beautiful country setting as if he owned everything.
Second Verse Paragraph - "Pebbles in the holy streams"
The second paragraph the speaker introduces the concept of time, which he personifies, claiming that it was time that allowed him to enjoy his regal activities as a young farmboy who was also “huntsman and herdsman”: “Time let me play and be / Golden in the mercy of his means.” In this paragraph, the speaker pays homage to divinity by observing that “the sabbath rang slowly / In the pebbles of the holy streams.”
Third Verse Paragraph - "As I rode to sleep"
The third paragraph offers more description of his idyllic farm: “the hay / Fields high as the house,”” “and the horses / Flashing into the dark.” The speaker refers to falling asleep as riding to sleep: “As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away.” While falling asleep, he could hear the owls whose plaintiff cries seemed to lull him away from the farm.
Fourth and Fifth Verse Paragraphs - "Shining, it was Adam and maiden"
The fourth and fifth paragraphs continue tracing the memories of how charming the speaker’s surroundings were and what a good time he had every day. As he awakened each morning, it was as if the farm was bringing back to him a Garden of Eden, where everything seemed new again: “it was all / Shining, it was Adam and maiden.” He even claims that it must have been this way when God first created creation, and “the spellbound horses walking warm / Out of the whinnying green stable / On to the fields of praise.” And he was “happy as the heart was long, / In the sun born over and over, / I ran my heedless ways.” Again he emphasizes his carefree attitude.
Sixth Verse Paragraph - "I sang in my chains like the sea"
In the final paragraph, the speaker demonstrates what he has since learned about being “green,” “easy,” “heedless”; he has discovered that all that freedom was somewhat delusive. He did not realize that at the time or else he just did not pay attention that while time was allowing him this idyllic space to romp and be carefree, that same commodity of time was running out. As the speaker has realized this as an adult, he still retains the beautiful memory that even though “Time held me green and dying,” still because of youth, he can claim that “I sang in my chains like the sea.”
Thomas' Accomplishment - A Skilled Craftsman
Dylan Thomas has fashioned a remarkable drama, portraying his youth and the farm where he spent it. His colorful language use describes the setting in such as way that it communicates true feeling without becoming sentimental in it execution or maudlin in its discovery. This poet was a skilled craftsman.
