Fern Hill: Summary and Analysis

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Fern Hill is a beautiful poem written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. In this poem, he remembers his childhood days spent in the countryside, especially on a farm called Fern Hill. He talks about how free, happy, and full of wonder those days were. The poem is full of nature, sunshine, green fields, and joyful moments. But as he looks back, he also realizes that time was always moving forward, and that childhood doesn’t last forever.

TEXT AND SUMMARY:

Stanza 1:

"Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,"

Summary: The speaker begins by remembering his youthful days when life was carefree and joyful. He was young and felt free under the apple trees around a cheerful house, as happy and fresh as the green grass.

"The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,"

Summary: On starry nights in the valley (dingle), time allowed him to enjoy and explore his youth. He felt special and golden in the prime of life when time looked favorably upon him.

"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."

Summary: He felt like a prince among the rural settings—among wagons and orchards. He remembers ruling the trees, leaves, and nature as if they obeyed him, following him through a dreamlike world lit by the falling sunlight.

Stanza 2:

"And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,"

Summary: The poet continues his recollection, describing himself as young, innocent, and joyful, well-known among the barns and feeling completely at home on the farm, singing happily.

"In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,"

Summary: In the once-in-a-lifetime youthful sunshine, time allowed him to enjoy life, treating him kindly and mercifully, letting him shine in his youth.

"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."

Summary: In his imagination, he was both a hunter and a shepherd. The calves seemed to sing in response to his horn, foxes barked clearly on the hills, and even Sundays (the Sabbath) seemed to echo gently in the holy streams of his memory.

Stanza 3:

"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."

Summary: He remembers entire sunlit days filled with joy and movement. The hayfields were tall, music floated from chimneys, the atmosphere felt light and playful. The colors were vivid—fiery green like grass.

"And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,"

Summary: At night, under the stars, as he fell asleep, he imagined owls carrying the farm away in a dreamlike, magical vision.

"All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark."

Summary: Throughout the moonlit nights, he felt blessed in the barns. He heard the sounds of nightjars (birds) flying and imagined horses galloping into the darkness, filling his dreams with life and motion.

Stanza 4:

"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,"

Summary: Waking up in the morning, the farm appeared like a traveler returning, covered in white dew. The rooster crowed on the farmer’s shoulder. Everything seemed pure and fresh, like the biblical Adam and Eve—innocent and new.

"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."

Summary: The sky brightened again, and the sun rose just like any magical day. The poet compares this morning to the creation of the world, when light was first born. He imagines enchanted horses leaving a green stable and entering the world in awe, as if into heavenly fields.

Stanza 5:

"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,"

Summary: He felt respected and joyful in the lively house surrounded by nature. Under newly formed clouds and endless happiness, he ran around carelessly in the repeatedly rising sun.

"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."

Summary: His desires rushed along with him through the hayfields. He didn’t care much, absorbed in his youthful "sky blue trades" (innocent pleasures). Time, like a turning melody, gives very few such mornings before children lose their innocence and are cast out of grace—similar to Adam and Eve’s fall.

Stanza 6:

"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."

Summary: In his pure and innocent days, he didn’t care that time would eventually take him to the attic (a metaphor for aging or death), led by his own shadow. He didn’t realize that in the moon’s eternal rise, time would carry away his youth while he slept, and he would wake up to a world where the farm and his childhood would be gone—leaving behind a barren, childless land.

Final Lines:

"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."

Summary: In the end, the poet reflects that although he felt young and carefree, time was always guiding him toward death. Even though he lived joyfully, he was still bound by time’s control, like the sea singing in its eternal cycles—both free and bound.

Short Analysis 

The poem begins with happy memories of childhood. The poet felt like a prince in a magical world, playing freely in the sun and under the stars. He uses beautiful images like green grass, golden sunlight, and singing animals to describe his joy.

However, as the poem continues, we see a change. The poet understands that time was quietly taking away his childhood. Even though he was happy, he was growing older every day. By the end, he accepts that time is powerful. It gives us joyful days, but also takes them away.

The final message is emotional: life is beautiful, but short. Childhood is a time of freedom, but we don’t realize how quickly it ends. Still, even when we grow up, we can remember those golden days and "sing in our chains"—meaning we can still find joy, even if time limits us.


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