Youthful Nostalgia
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Thomas's Youthful Nostalgia in "Fern Hill"
In "Fern Hill" Dylan Thomas deals with the age-old dilemma of growing up.
Thomas's youthful, carefree outlook is expressed through his description of the farm
where he spent his youth. The poet uses nine six-line stanzas to illustrate the naivet he
experienced when he was a boy. Thomas, now a grown man, can tell his readers in
retrospect about his youthful ignorance regarding the process of time.
In the first stanza the reader is introduced to life through young Thomas's eyes.
He uses personification to describe the house as "lilting" (2). As the boy frolics through
the yard, it seems to him that the house is springing and moving. This introduces the
boy's acceptance of his own interpretation of life. His mind is untainted by the outside
world. He goes on to use assonance to ask time to let him "hail and climb" (4)...