Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
Things to Consider:
- Passage of Time
- Cycles of Life and Death
- Unity in Nature
- Use of Language: imagery,
alliteration, assonance, rhyme
Discussion Questions:
1433:
- According to the editors, what
major theme can be found in Thomas's poems?
- Explain Thomas's "dialectical method" (1433).
"Fern Hill" (1946) 
1434-35:
- Describe the use of imagery in this poem.
1434:
- Explain: "Once below a time I
lordly had the trees and leaves" (7).
1435:
- Explain: "All the sun long" (19),
"All the moon long" (25).
- Explain: "The owls were bearing the
farm away" (24).
- Explain: "Time held me green and
dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea" (53-54).
What does the color green represent here?
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" (1951)
1436:
- What poem form is being employed
here? Explain.
- Explain the poem's message.
- How do form and content relate in this poem? Explain.
Other Discussion Questions:
"Fern Hill" (1946)1435:
- Explain: "And the sabbath rang slowly / In the pebbles of
the holy streams" (17-18).
- Explain lines 42-45.
(Another Poem to Consider):
"The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" (1933)
1434:
- To what "force" is Thomas referring?
- Explain: "Of my clay is made the hangman's lime" (15).
- Explain the final two lines.