An Investigation Into The Depiction Of Innocence In Dylan Thomas’s Poetry

thither be three rimes in which Dylan doubting doubting doubting Thomas direct deals with honour, and the loss of it to adulthood, and many smaller poems where the musical composition is mentioned. This is linked in with his musical theme of succession, which is one of the central figures in his poetry. Here I conduct essay to uncover how Dylan Thomas habituates the theme of naturalness in his poetry, and why it lasts so come up.

The first of Dylans fair trio I shall look at is titled ?Was on that point a era. In this poem Dylan is late regretting the loss of whiteness. His use of Was at that place..?; vexs it sound as if he is struggling to remember his honour ? was thither a quantify.. ah yes, there was a clipping. The langu bestride of the raise is deeply metaphysical, which is in eviscerate with the fairy prop language of tikehood. The ?dancers with their fiddles are fantasise idols such as beam Pan.. the pied piper of Hamlet.. and Alices rabbit.. taking tikeren to the never-never land of honour and make believe, away from approximative reality. This paradise of youth they travel to is referred to as a childrens carnival by Thomas, implying it is a performance put on for their cheer and to show them new and wondrous sights. In the third air he laments the loss of the sensitivity that accompanies youth and pureness.. in hollo over books. Perhaps he as well laments the loss of image that makes such things become real in a childs mind. The maggot in the fourth run along is cl primordial age.. feeding on the buxom takings of life.. time here is analyzen as a scoundrel as in most of Thomass poetry. (such as Do non Go Gentle into that Good Night). The one-fifth line implies that there is no security in time ? no sentry go, no stability ? which is why the children are unsafe. He continues this safety theme in the sixth line with whats never cognise is safest; pointing out the irony that, akin to when we dream, we never know innocence was upon us until we wake up. Knowledge, as in the story of pass and Eve, is visualized as a corrupting influence.. perhaps because the maggot in the second line is wherefore knowledge not age; the worm within the apple? Ignorance is bliss, bliss is ignorance.. and plainly in puerility does that ignorance go unpunished, and is cherished quite and then derided. This is the theme of the at long last three lines. The skysigns in line septette refer to the zodiac are a symbol of pre-destined realm.. the fate creation presumably that we will lose our innocence. I retrieve excessively that the use of the word skysigns adds to the mythical illusion world looking of the piece. Cleanest are the hands of those who cod no arms is a biblical reference to Pontious pi attraction washing his hands of the line of business of Jesus, and perhaps Shakespeares Lady Macbeth. Those who are incapable of doing harm ? ie. children - are the most innocent of all. The heartless ghost come outs to be a casual snipe at love.. precisely I estimate its also a reference to how ignorance protects children ? lifes woes go right by dint of them, and so they are unhurt because they are not hard: they dont rightfully exist in the real world yet. In the last line, the The blind man sees best quote, as well as referring to the general innocence is bliss theme, may also refer to fondness of childhood innocence being unpolluted by the cataract of prejudice: here are the children, and all they view to teach us.

The second poem I will look at here is Fern Hill. This deals again, without delay with innocence, this time from the positioning of a child playing in his never-never land of childhood innocence. Instead of dissecting it verse by verse, I will try instead to look at the themes the language throws up, and utter each one in turn. Firstly, there is a lot of carefree language in the poem; unripened and slatternly, carefree, heedless and nothing I cared. Thomas is directly showing his experience at Fern Hill to be the demo of innocence ? a happy worry-free childhood. There is also an abundance of vocabulary describing new life, freshness and fountainery ? the word green is mentioned many times in the poem, both as a descriptor of the poet and of Fern Hill. In fact, color plays a signifi guttert fibre in painting Thomass picture of innocence on the hammock ? white, gold and green all being utilize to disembowel innocence, a golden age of happiness and youth and get-up-and-go respectively. In addition to color, Thomas uses symbols in order to portray his theme of youth and innocence, of which calves, lamb white and new make clouds are all casefuls.

Being a deeply metaphysical poem, Fern Hill is full of metaphors. Here I will attempt to isolate and explain some of the deeply metaphorical language inherent in Thomass work. In the first verse, under the apple boughs could possibly mean under the tree of knowledge; fate hangs in the air like the solarize but hes motionlessness free from its influence ? perhaps he arset reach the apple of knowledge yet because hes too small in growth. footprint with daisies and barley ? here Thomas is referring to the boy draping daisy chains roughly trees and leaves ? daisy chains are a symbol of simple child like beauty, like daisies ? small simple flowers. With The insolate that is young once completely Thomas is referring to his perception of the insolate.. he sees the sun in youth so to him it is young, but it will only be young once. In it was Adam and m inciteen over he is referring to the unbroken innocence before the original sin; a life of paradise with his mother nature. In the sun innate(p) over and over he is describing the sun in a state of eternal youth, in the childhood myth of the sun dying and being born again each morning. In time retentivity the subject ?green and dying, Thomas is again referring to his youth which is both green and dying. The fact that time is holding him go againsts the whimsey that it is holding him apart from the rest - gentle in its arms like a mother as he sleeps.

Almost all of Thomass references to innocence are delivered in this poem via the subjects surroundings ? the Fern Hill itself. The ornament of Fern Hill is personified; it is a living(a) breathing vibrant entity; the mother nature of it was Adam and maiden. The descrip         tion of the ornament and the way it interacts with the subject is the paintstone of Thomass portrayal of innocence in Fern Hill. It is a fantasy world ? a never-never land of childhood. The animals are spellbound, the dew is shining the chimneys play tunes. It is a description that could be taken right out of the Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan or a thousand childrens fairy tales. The open grammar and the childish effervescence (the repetitive use of the word benignant for example) only serve to make this portrayal of youthful innocence all the more than poignant. The perspective and the role of the subject is of key import in Fern Hill. It is written from the first person, and the vocabulary used in places along with the perception of innocence prohibiting places the eye of the poet firmly in adulthood, reminiscing virtually his childhood. I say his childhood, but this could well have been a fictional childhood not experienced by the poet; and there is no definitive evidence to suggest other than. However, based on the vivid descriptions, the vividness of the emotions described and the idolization of youth expressed here and in Thomass other poems, I feel that the poet is describing his own childhood. This close tie-up between the poet and his poem enforces the olfactory property of realism that the poem exudes.

The line My wishes raced through the house high hay puts an interesting coil on the poem. Descartess theorem ? I pretend therefore I am, and that thoughts are the only true substance of life - is a theme not uncommon in Dylan Thomass poetry. In The hunchback in the Park for example, the hunchback back end be seen as a creator, not just of the woman figure but of the park as a whole. Even the boys that torment him do the tigers jump out of their eyes; suggesting the landscape about them is a harvesting of their emotions and imagination. This theme can be extended to Fern Hill, and is enforced by the subjects unchallenged control of the landscape around him - I was prince of the apple towns, the calves sang to my horn and [I was] honored amongst foxes and pheasants. (Egocentricity is a tumid characteristic of children up until adolescence.) To what extent the description is a product of the subjects imagination is open to interpretation; it is possible that the landscape is tout ensemble metaphorical and the poet is just using it to convey his dream-like impressions of childhood. Possible but not really probable ? I think it more likely that Thomas grew up on a get up such as Fern Hill, and the poem is a result of his Rugrat-esque childish perception.

The third poem I will look at is Poem in October. This is again a poem about innocence, but casts it in a different light. Instead of reminiscing, Thomas is rejoicing in the fact that it is still present. To him it has never died, never done for(p) away ? and is as strong now as it ever was in the past. alike Fern Hill, the language is deeply metaphysical and strung with metaphors. Unlike Fern Hill heretofore, these metaphors are laced around a definite progressive ?plot ? that of the walk he takes on his birthday.

This move is the main vein running through the poem. On one level it is a purely physical journey;- he starts off at the bear of a sea-side town, climbs a hill and looks out over the landscape. However, it is not hard to see a metaphysical journey running parallel to the physical. The confine represents his birth, the town his childhood, the path to the hill his adolescence, climbing the hill his early adulthood and his current state moving onto middle-age. This is re-enforced by the line [the gates] of the town closed as the town awoke, which I think is a reference to his childhood and the awakening of adolescence; he can never return to his childhood (although he takes a part of it with him). This underlying structure of the poem gives a firm form on which to build on; and as a result there is a definite disposition of progression and compound from state to state inherent in the poem. This is directly turnabout to Fern Hill, which was about time stopping and eternal youth ? the sun being born again each day.

This change of time is depicted in the poem via the seasons. Although it is October, there are unvarying references to spring and the summer sun, even though it is distinctly auterm. While this is confusing on the purely physical level, on the metaphysical level it makes sense ? and it is my belief that in this lucid flaw in the physical interpretation, Thomas is trying to give even the most casual reader an insight into the deeply metaphysical nature of his poem. It is spring when he sets forth from the defend (the spring of his life) and summery when he reaches his vantage point on the hill. Each time the weather turns around in the last half of the poem, it represents another year passing - he seems to be retracing a path he has trodden year after year. This adds to the impression of time having past in the poem, yet the subject himself hasnt really changed. The links between time represented as seasons, and the landscape and his past adds to this sense of integrity:- he is the earth and time passes over him like seasons; it can only add to him; not take away from him. This portrayal of time is optimistic and is in direct contrast to its portrayal in Was There a Time and to a lesser extent in Fern Hill. Like Fern Hill however, Thomas draws on the surrounding landscape to make metaphorical statements related to the subjects life, and it is this symbiotic relationship that creates much of the poems effect.

along with the relationship between the landscape and the subject, there are both main themes inherent in the piece: water and spiritual resourcefulness. Water is a symbol of life, and it is a pro tapnt own in the metaphysical landscape Thomas uses.



One can almost see his journey as a river; from the harbor the source of the river, the source of life :- the womb, up the hill to end in some stream before ascending into the rainclouds. This enforces the heart of movement and vitality in the poem: the subject and the landscape are existent. Religious imagery is also inherent over; particularly in contact with the landscape, water and Thomass main theme of innocence.(priested shore, parables of sun light, green chapels) This religious imagery enforces the magnitude of this journey of the soul he is taking, and serves to draw charge to some of the poems deeper aspects ? the meaning of the water, the importance of time (the sun in the sky), and the central theme of innocence at the end.

While the connection between religious imagery and the theme of innocence in the poem may not be direct, I think the long dead child relation burning is passing reminiscent of Christ the child. They share many characteristics ? they both have lived twice - twice told fields of infancy and he is singing and burning ? akin to Christs suffering on the cross (and confusable to the child singing in his chains in Fern Hill). just about importantly the child seems to have the gift of life ? in the sixth stanza when he whispers the truth of his joy to his landscape it sings alive still in the water and the singingbirds. Thomass ikon of the child reminds me of Oscar Wildes depiction of Christ in his short story The Selfish Giant, where he is portrayed as a child with the power to surcharge life in his very footsteps, and is untainted unlike the onetime(a) children with the fear of the giant:- the very picture of godly innocence. Whether the child directly represents Christ or not, Thomas defiantly makes him the tenseness of the poem by the amount of imagery - religious and otherwise - he crowns him with.

        Poem in October portrays time and innocence rather more optimistically then the other two poems I am looking at. The child is a symbol of the subjects innocence; undying ? the child is dead in the physical sense because his childhood has ended, but in the metaphysical his innocence has never left him ? his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moves in mine. Time cannot touch him, and is portrayed to have more of a edifying, strengthening effect then the destructive influence in Was There a Time, where time and age are portrayed as a maggot:- something foul to corrupt and sour the fruit of youth. In Poem in October it takes him onto new experiences, in the fifth stanza it leads him on to pastures full of bountiful fruits for example, and there is this sense of irrefutable progression in the poem:- following the river of life that time rolls out before the subject. In Fern Hill time is also personified as a positive entity by and large, a sort of benevolent father watching over the poet, like God. Thomas repeatedly calls time merciful in allowing him this paradise of youth, although there is always the sense that innocence as is the golden age before the original sin :- something marvelous but inherently mortal. The whole sixth stanza is devoted to bittersweet contemplation of the indispensable; the time when the subject must ascend into the swallow crowd together loft ? the adult world. There is no sense of this in Poem in October, where time is as insubstantial as the seasons drifting over the subject ? time is a guide, an aid on his journey, not a destructive force. Innocence cannot be destroyed, it is undying, everlasting; the life that invigorates and vitalizes. Again this is different to the painting of innocence In Was There a Time, where innocence is portrayed as a blindfold of comfort, a sanctified ignorance that cannot last ? already the maggot is on their track; the fuse is lit to blow their fantasy world away.

This discrepancy of opinion of innocence in Dylan Thomass work is puzzling, it suggests that his opinion of innocence changed with age. Fern Hill and Poem in October seem to romanticize time and innocence, and were perhaps written in virtually the same period, although his views on the mortality of innocence had clearly changed. Was There a Time could have been written afterwards, when he was feeling the gall of old age: perhaps this explains the targeting of time as a villain. This discrepancy of opinion is not unusual in his work; like Blake he seems to incorporate starkly distant views sometimes even in the same poem ? for example in And Death Shall Have No Domination. It serves to make us think however; to challenge unhesitating faith in each extreme, which I suppose is what art is all about.

disrespect these conflicting views on innocence, Poem in October and Fern Hill wait two of Thomass most popular poems. In fact they persist two of the Nations most popular modern poems, and with Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night place Thomas as one of the nations most popular poets ever. Why is this exploration of innocence in his work so popular? Seamus Heaneys Black-Berry choose is another example of an extremely popular poem that deals with the themes of time and mortal innocence. Its not just found in poems every:- Peter Pan, the Pied Piper of Hamlet, even Mary Poppins are all examples of hugely successful stories that explore childhood innocence. What then makes innocence such a powerfully compelling theme? In a sense I think it is because we can relate. The vast majority have experienced a childhood, however drawing, where they felt carefree and secure in their innocence. Most of us yearn to experience again that childhood, if just for a draft second to walk the fire green as shop of childhood innocence. Poems and stories that allow us to re-capture that innocence, if just for a brief second, or renew hope that it still exists within us are thus highly prized.

Dylan Thomass depictions of innocence remain reckon portrayals of the green and golden, and I hope I have gone some way into exploring what makes them so poignant.

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