English Literature: Detailed Analysis of Dylan Thomas's Poems

This assignment provides a detailed analysis of three poems by Dylan Thomas: 'A Refusal to Mourn, the death by fire, of a child in London', 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night', and 'Fern Hill'. The analysis explores various aspects of the poems, including the title's significance, syntax, use of present participles, and puns in 'A Refusal to Mourn'. 'Do Not Go Gentle' is examined for its title's meanings, rhyme scheme, refrain, verb choices, imagery, and ambiguous vocabulary. 'Fern Hill' is analyzed through the lens of childhood memories, symbolism, cliches, religious and imagery elements, the power of time, and expressions of fear and despair. The assignment addresses specific questions from a portfolio entry brief, offering insights into Thomas's poetic style, themes of death, life, and childhood, and his use of language to convey complex emotions and ideas. References to supporting literature are included.

English Literature Dylan
Thomas

TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Refusal to Mourn, the death by fire, of a child in London..........................................................3
Do Not go Gentle.............................................................................................................................4
Fern Hill...........................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

A Refusal to Mourn, the death by fire, of a child in London
a) All through the sonnet, we see the speaker scrutinizing his convictions and his activities. This
is definitely not an unprecedented reaction when managing misfortune. Individuals experience a
full scope of feelings when managing passing scrutinizing one's convictions doesn't appear to be
strange. The speaker, subsequent to considering hanging out in his strict air pocket, announces
that he, "will not murder/The humankind of her going with a grave truth". His utilization of "first
dead" suggests that there have been some more, or there will be passings (Mearns and Preston,
2020). He says that he won't invest his energy harping on this solitary loss when there are such
countless passing's to stress over. How is it possible that he would potentially feel similar
feelings for the entirety of the coming passing's? How is it possible that he would put such a lot
of energy and feeling into this one demise? He guarantees that as opposed to grieving, he will
stream like the Thames, pervasive and unconscious.
b) There has been a passing in London, a youngster has kicked the bucket in a fire and he feels
incredible distress over the "consuming of a kid's demise." He would not like to spoil the truth of
her circumstance with his own tears and feelings (Ohito, 2020). This would be a demonstration
of lewdness, he accepts. hence, there is no verb in the given paragraph.
c) Here, the dead being addressed by the kid. The departure of a youngster is the best misfortune;
and emblematic of life lost without having bloomed. Thomas essentially won't grieve for it
would consign the actual youngster to the activity of grieving. This refusal to grieve is somewhat
a festival of each blameless life lost.
d) He would not like to corrupt the truth of her circumstance with his own tears and feelings.
This would be a demonstration of disrespect, he accepts. the thinking behind their being so
clarified and that might be lead them for having the "grave truth". He would not like to corrupt
the truth of her circumstance with his own tears and feelings. This would be a demonstration of
obscenity, he accepts (Oliveira and Baines, 2020). He wants to, however won't affect the
circumstance by singing some "Requiem of blamelessness moreover youth."

Do Not go Gentle
a) Yes, in this poem the author have taken two gentle name which means the kind and
affordable. Yet, in the sonnet's last refrain, the speaker uncovers that the individual is tending to
their "father." The sonnet feels considerably less widespread after that second (Robinson, 2019).
All things considered, it seems like Dylan Thomas, the artist, is talking straightforwardly to his
dad, attempting to offer him consolation as he faces passing. Rather than being a sonnet about
death all in all, it is a sonnet about family, sadness and mature age.
b) The test for the perused will be to adjust the two faces the sonnet presents. The perused may
keep thinking about whether it is actually a widespread sonnet or more explicit and individual.
Yet, the speaker postpones uncovering that the sonnet is committed to their "father" until the
finish of the sonnet on purpose. The speaker needs to give the perused space to relate to the
sonnet, to consider how it applies to their life, prior to arranging in the particular, individual
setting of the speaker's own life. All in all, it is ideal to consider the sonnet both explicit and
widespread simultaneously. Along these lines, in the sonnet's first line, the speaker says that
individuals shouldn't simply surrender when they face passing; the speaker doesn't need them to
be "delicate" about it. All things being equal, as the speaker explains in the following two lines,
the individual needs individuals to battle fearlessly and furiously against death. Elderly folks
individuals should "consume and rave" when they face passing—which the speaker calls "the
end of day".
c) He utilization of the representation "that great evening" gives the feeling that Thomas realizes
that passing is correct. Be that as it may, he additionally calls it "the withering of the light".
Which proposes a tranquil acquiescence. Thomas utilizes the words "night" and "light" as
analogies for death and life and substitutes them to pound his point home (Lovett, Leger and
Henrik, 2020). A piece of this sonnet appears to be practically cheerful when Thomas announces
"Mature age should consume and rave at close of day," maybe he is saying that elderly
individuals ought to be permitted to live long and gripe inasmuch as they don't surrender. The
motivation behind his utilization of division into classifications remains, nonetheless, to stress
the significance of living as he gives his dad an undeniable contention.
d) Burn :- to consumer the heat light and fuels.
Rave :- this might be belongs to the culture and religions to their people in the poem.
Blaze:- this related to remark in the author mind about the father and other wise men.

Dance and Music:- this might be related to about the thinking which might be have thinking for
the dance in night and make the music to be sounds good.
e) Sun, lightning, meteors; "danced in a green bay". this imaginary seems to be about the poem
which being related to the night theme. Trying individuals who have lived at the time and
accepted life without limit, allegorically getting a blissful ride across the sky on the sun,
acknowledge past the point of no return that the sun is abandoning them, and that even they
should pass on however they decline to calmly acknowledge demise. Genuine individuals, going
to pass on, acknowledge with abrupt clearness that even the individuals who have lost their sight
can, similar to meteors, be loaded with light and joy (Salti, 2020). So they oppose, oppose the
approaching obscurity of their demises. What's more, you, father, are near death, as though on
the pinnacle of a mountain. Weight and blessing me with your energetic feelings, I appeal to you.
Try not to go calmly into the inviting evening of death. Oppose, oppose the approaching
murkiness of your demise.
f) In "Don't Go Gentle Into That Good Night," the speaker recognizes that passing is inescapable
—everybody bites the dust, at some point or another. All things considered, the speaker contends
that individuals should battle, furiously and fearlessly, against death.
Fern Hill
a) When I recall my childhood days, it goes to a very comfortable place. Everything was so
different. I still remember it like it was yesterday. My family and I used to go to my
grandfather’s farm located outside the country. All the kids used to go on their bikers into the
streets of the rural area, racing to reach first. Grandma used to make us drink fresh milk with
home made breads. I still crave for the freshly harvested honey taste on my tongue. The smell of
grandma’s garden lives rent free in my mind. Every kid wants to be adult so bad but once the
actual adulating hits, it takes away the fun childhood days of an individual. Adulting is non
stoppable process, it comes with a lot of responsibilities. An adult person cannot sit in front of
the television the whole day, go out to play in the evening and come back home to delicious
cooked food. Adulting comes with lot of pressure from work, many bills to pay and keeping the

weekends just to take rest rather than enjoying by going out. We lose our child self when we are
in mid twenties, burden by the responsibility of being independent and make our parents proud.
b) The phrase in which Dylan Thomas has symbolised us to adopt a child like way of seeing
the world are “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 only once,” Author has used many
beautiful metaphors to recreate and produce his childhood and sense of many emotions. Firstly,
talking about the fear of the child, the poet says that “Flying with the ricks, and the
horses. Flashing into the dark.” This phrases can be said that the child is afraid of darkness. He
can have a sense of fear when he is in and around a dark space. Then as of joy and happiness, the
poet begins the poem by describing the happiness of the child and that he used to sit and be
relaxed under the branches of the apple tree which surrounded the house that made him joyful
(Mishra, D). To the young speaker, everything was fun and full of glee when he was free from
all the worries and responsibilities. He was enjoying his childhood life at the farm to the fullest.
Throughout the poem the poet draws attention to the fact that how he as a child felt about the
nature. He was in an awe and wonders the magic of nature. The speaker explained this by using
phrases like “All the sun long it running”, “tunes of the chimneys”, also referred the air lovely
and watery. In the poem when the poet was a child, he felt that the future will be good and
successful and had the feeling of optimism.
c) The poem has used many cliche’s which echoes into the everyday phrase. The phrase
“once below a time means that something is buried under the time. This phrase also reminds of
what happens when someone dies leaving his loved ones. The “happy as the grass was green”
means the person is happy in his old times, grass shows his feelings. Grass is really green means
the child was really happy.
d) Fern hill poem sounds too good to be true and sounds just like Eden. Dylan Thomas has
symbolised many religious and imagery things telling us about having the young and full of
energy Adam and Eve as they experienced in Eden (Bharadwaj, 2017). It all resembles very
much to the carefree and joyful child living his best time of the life in Fern Hill. But
unfortunately, neither the Garden of Eden nor Poet’s Fern Hill lasts forever.
e) Poet has portrayed the power of time in the whole poem. Time allows the speaker to have
his period of childhood happiness and at the same time he is well through the fact that nothing

lasts forever. He knows that this time of joy will come to an end. The poem depicts time as an
unstoppable force which have the power to control the humans living in this world.
f) In the stanza three, the poet is expressing his feeling of fear. He believes that every thing
is lovely and happy when the sun is shining (SUMATHI, and SURESH, 2018). But as the sun
sets down and stars sprinkle, the child closes his eyes to go to sleep and then his fear came
rushing through in form of owl howling from farm away from his house. As the child sleeps, the
darkness keeps flashing in front of his eyes making him anxious and fear that the fun and happy
part will end.
g) In the last two stanzas the happy tone of poem is becoming more despair and sorrow. The
speaker comes back to the reality world where he realises that the farm from is memories is now
long gone from his life (Devi, S.K.C). He is not waking up to the farm with the dew anymore.
Time holds him during both the time, when he was free and young and then when he was dying.
He now believes that when he was young and free he was slowly dying from inside bringing him
closer to death.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bharadwaj, S., 2017. Dylan Thomas’s “Fern Hill”: The Poets’s Passion for Auden’s
Greatness. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 6(6),
pp.174-194.
Devi, S.K.C., DYLAN THOMAS AS A POET _.
Lovett, B., Leger, R.J.S. and Henrik, H., 2020. Going gentle into that pathogen-induced
goodnight. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 174. p.107398.
Mearns, A. and Preston, W.C., 2020. The bitter cry of outcast London: An inquiry into the
condition of the abject poor. Good Press.
Mishra, D., English Literature Focus-Ecocritical Perspectives Green Thoughts and Memory in
Dylan Thomas‟ s “Fern Hill”. „Ecocritical Focus Issue‟ ISSN 2278-0742, www. ijells.
com.
Ohito, E.O., 2020. Some of us die: a Black feminist researcher’s survival method for creatively
refusing death and decay in the neoliberal academy. International Journal of Qualitative
Studies in Education. pp.1-19.
Oliveira, C. and Baines, E., 2020. Children ‘born of war’: a role for fathers?. International
Affairs. 96(2). pp.439-455.
Salti, R., 2020. Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Film Festivals, Pandemic,
Aftermath. Film Quarterly. 74(1). pp.88-96.
SUMATHI, N. and SURESH, D., 2018. PASTORAL DEVICES IN DYLAN THOMAS’“FERN
HILL” AND “POEM IN OCTOBER”–A CRITIQUE. International Journal of Pure and
Applied Mathematics, 119(16), pp.2419-2429.
Online
Robinson, A., 2019. Full expert analysis : "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan
Thomas. [Online]. Available Through : < https://blog.prepscholar.com/do-not-go-gentle-
into-that-good-night-meaning-dylan-thomas >