Title AN APPROACH TO "FERN HILL"

Author(s) SENAHA, Eiki

Citation 沖大論叢 = OKIDAI RONSO, 4(1-2): 1-6

Issue Date 1964-03-30

URL http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12001/10749

Rights 沖縄大学

AN APPROACH TO "·FERN HILL"

Eiki SENAHA

W. R. McAlpine states in his ~ssays on Contemporary English Literature

that one of the most perfect lyrics written in the Twentieth Century

is Dylan Thomas's poem "Fern Hill":

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

The night above the dingle starry, Time let me hail and climb

Golden in the heydays of his eyes, And honored 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.

And as 1 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 once only, Time let me play and be

Golden in the mercy of his means, 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.

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.

As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away, All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars

Flying with the ricks, and horses Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm like a wanderer white W ith the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was a ll

Shining, it was Ada m and maiden, The sky gathered again

And the sun grew round that very day. So it must have been after the birth of the simple light

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In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm Out of the whinnying green stable

On to the fields of Praise.

And honored 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 wa.ys,

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.

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. 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.*

The poem "Fern Hill'' may or can be approached from the standpoint

of sheer pleasure of sound and rhythm for the reason that the reader is

deeply impressed with the poet's flowing rhythms, echoing sounds and

balanced repetitions in the poem. ln approaching the poem, however, we

should give more careful attention to the intricacies of structure, word

order and unexpected combinations ot words. There is an overrichness

and abundance of conflicting images that make the poem contradictory,

producing a complex emotional response. Then an approach to the poem

in terms of paradox would be helpful to gain a richer insight into the

poem. Before attacking the poem proper, an examination of the paradox

concept might be illuminating.

In his book The Well Wrought Urn Cleanth Brooks states that "the

language of poetry is the language of paradox," illustrating and elaborat­

ing this approach. He further maintains that "apparantly the truth

which the poet utters can be approached only in terms of paradox,"

* Louis Untermeyer, Great Poems (Perman Books, New York, 1953)p. 530-1.

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and that "all metaphors involve some element of paradox." Then the

-poem "Fern Hill" seems to bear this out, for it manifests at least

twenty-one pertinent paradoxes in these tifty-four lines, some of which,

-providing the internal form and unity of the poem, will be considered

in this paper. Paradox is defined in the Webster's New Twentieth

Century Dictionary as: (1) A statement contrary to common belief; (2)

A statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but that

may actually be true in fact; (3) A statement that is self-contradictory;

(4) Something inconsistent with common experience or having contradictory

qualities or a person who is inconsistent or contradictory in character or

behaviour. Brooks himself defines the term briefly in his famous book

Understanding Poetry as: "A statement which seems on the surface

contradictory, but which involves an element of truth. Since there is an

element of contrast between the form of the statement and its real

implications, paradox is closely related to Irony." With this concept of

paradox in mind, let us apply it to the poem "Fern Hill."

The reader of the poem becomes aware of the immense dramatic tension

that is brought about by the paradoxical position of the "I" and

"Time." As stated several places in the poem, time let, permitted, or

allowed the "I" to act, play, grow, and achieve. The "I" was at the

mercy oi time's means. There are at least ten direct allusions to time

plus many more subtle hints; hence, the concept of time becomes thematic

in the poem. I would rather say that the contradictory position of time

and the "I" becomes thematic. The personification of ·time is apparent, . .

but when we consider time in the context it becomes deified in a sense.

These lines in the last .stanza serve to illustrate this: "Oh as I was

young and easy in the mercy of his means, /Time held me green and dying."

By observing the paradox, we gain a further insight into the poem.

The reader would first conceive of the personification of time and observe

the rather rank triteness of the expression; however, in conceiving of

the deification of time and its relation to the "I" the metaphor becomes

new and mentally invigorating. In realizing the juxtaposition of god-like

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time and the "I", the reader asks the question--Who is the "I"? --which.

leads ultimately to the overlying abstract paradox of the entire p::iem.

In answering the question, some might think that the "l" represents.

the delightful experiences of a boy in just being alive and the ephemerality

of this delight. Others might think ,that it stands for an adult reflecting

on the joys of youth. Still others might think that the "I" symbolizes

man, generic man, man evolving-- scientifically and spiritually. In p3rases.

like "prince of apple towns," "famous among barns," "honored among

foxes and pheasants," and "huntsman and herdsman," as well as in many

other places, Thomas tries to embrace human experience in those terms.

The latter would seem the most valid judgement in view of the whole

poem. This brings us to the supreme abstract paradox of the poem--i.e.

the contrast of the theory of evolution and the Christian myth. This

paradox ironically is developed by paradoxes, such as "I was huntsman

and herdsman," one meaning the killer and the other the protector. Now,

Thomas could mean that generically man was first a huntsman and a

herdsman or that he was hunter and herder simultaneously. He could

mean both of the above. I think he clearly means both, and more, for

that matter. Historically, man was first a hunter, and then, with the advent

of agriculture, he became a herdsman. Then man has been and is both.

This phrase also serves symbolically to illustrate the overall paradox:

scientifically man is a hunter, a hunter of facts and theories

to better his evironmental position; he is also a- herdsman, a herder

of other men in a Christian sense. The fourth stanza exemplifies this

grand paradox in a poetic manner par excellence.

In this stanza is found the crux of the internal structure and unity of

thepoem. Here the beginning of time, the beginning of man, the beginning

of the Christian myth, and the beginning of the evolutionary process

are revealed. "In the first, spinning place" seems to allude to the current

rtebular hypothesis, a theory which states the origin of the universe,

hence the origin of time. The references in the paradoxical phrase "Adam

and maiden" are obvious. "Spellbound horses" subtly suggests the concept

of evolution in "In the first, spinning place." While alluding to

evolution, it also suggests the Christian genesis or Christ's Nativity in

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"ike bk'th of the aimp1e light .. : the hMses that were struk m.ctaMI;' alive wmld ·cenamty be speltbnad While the para11Des here· a~ a~y PJWef{al. tltef are fotbld extendiq into the Dmtt staua.

Tbis final stama provides a denoument fur tbe dramatil: tensien that has bee!l estabtished. by the para:doodeal pesiticm of time ·aDd the "1" and.

illustrates the poem's prittcipal paradox. The lines: "Oh as I was~ and easy iD the !l'lei'Cy of his meana./'l'ime held. me green au. dying"

shGws tlWL Here dliifiei time becomes aD integral pervasive · ff)I'Ce · bl. relatilim to eYCiltlfhm and Christia1ility. The last ~of the poem is bigh]y •g;estive a.U sym'b0li& Does Tll0!iaas meaD that tbe "J•• was 4Yi'nl bl ywttt. (l!t'feeft) '? Is 'be loeiag trite by.·~ that every ~te we live we are cl.yiq ar 18 he belq pessimistie stating that generie

ftii8Jl is dylq a )"CCIIthful death I? I think DDt. GreeD synahlS gl'8Wth

a1ltl life. ·ltence evol!lltk The word ~dying'· l6 symbolic ill the Cbriatwi sense, as it is -..tved that .. to die'' is to live, to be rebem. Thomas

develops, by c:ontradieticm. tl!e concept that thcmgh man is dying, dyiq

is in tbe Chdstiaa amt 'JI~gical sense, and he is green ami grGWift:g

itt an evolatit!mary sense. Hence. by combininl the Gtll1l'lePt of time. as "nwmas clcles. we C8Jl arrive at a stataumt of the pl!lei!D. ~ern Hill .. is

p'hylogenetic rec::apitnlatiGR of.buman l'listory • an abstntet level. a reea­pitulatwa fn~m the a~ of ew~ 2M Chtistiatlrity. Tbia is paradoxlsat Is Thomas 'beiDg pertbteftt by ,lw(ta~ ewlutin. &ad Chtitiamty 'l Is he ~ t1lem • bas he 8\lbtly sbown a prefereru!e fer cme • the other~? I tldak that Thomas is meitber bftpertineat, t10t ertbtinog tke Q!lnc!:epts, nor makiftg a ay&thesis, nor bas he shown a ]lleferaJla Rattler. I }ielieve tbat the ~ has shiJwn them in their ~ pmspeetive--joim!d together by ttme Cil!mtroUiag man attd maa's destitly. ·

This approac:h makes the reader more carefal in reading, abstractin& and evaluating the pgem. It makes the reader much ume CCittCioaa of

many sttbltle ~P of cmtcepts, and it pervades u.p:m the reader's

imagiftatiGn, makmg him semsitlve to the poetie. imagiUtion. By barring

tbe paraphraat, the imlceuaraey of persomal interpcoetatba · is SDmSWbat

ftldaGed. Witlatt applying this a~ the pclem woald beoome a simple stOry · abnt a boy"s enltant gloryiftg iB utural things or a story

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al!Rt a g1Grids ynq hoy oa a Welsh farm who fiDalty zeaUzes ift 1ms

later yaan wbtm he relates thiS stGry. tbat time held hla im its ''pup.

JUBLIQG,l~APHY

J. :B!moks. Cleaath: W~l WeJ!j! Up. Han~~~~tl't, t85tl.

2. Bnoks. CleaJlth au Wamm. R011ert Pesur. ~8!1!fiel Poota,

Heuy lblt ad ~. tlia.

4. Umtem.,m, Lcruia: A ~ 1'P!!i!7 Gf ~t Pal§._ Permaa

Books. tOSll.

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