From "Fern Hill"

by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)


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 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.

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 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.

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Hear Dylan Thomas reading the whole poem:





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Things to think about:

I have to confess. The first time I read this poem, I didn't care for it. I didn't know what a "dingle" was, and that bothered me. "Golden in the heydays of his eyes" wasn't a phrase I could easily make sense of. And what's going on with being green and carefree?

But I discovered other poems by Dylan Thomas that I liked. And I learned that some of his poems are best listened to, as we might listen to a strange song or a piece of new music. We wait for what the poet can give us, and maybe we find something interesting!

When I was in high school, somebody asked me what it meant that "the sabbath rang slowly in the pebbles of the holy streams." It's a beautiful sentence, and I'd love to hear your ideas about it!