Poem in October by Dylan Thomas critical analysis

 

POEM IN OCTOBER

Dylan Marlais Thomas

Ñ Welsh poet and writer

Ñ Noted for his original rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery

Ñ Also noted for verbal density, alliteration, sprung rhythm and internal rhyme.

Ñ Some of the famous poems are “Do not gentle into that goodnight”, “Death shall have no domain” and “ the play of voices ”

Works

Ñ 18 poems (Poet’s corner book prize)

Ñ In the Country sleep and other poems

Ñ Me and my Bike

Ñ Rebecca’s daughter

Ñ Death and Entrances

Ñ The Map of love

Ñ The World I Breathe

Ñ Twenty five poems

PROSE

Ñ The beach at falsea

Ñ Letters to Vernon Watkins

Ñ A Prospect of the Sea

Ñ The Doctor and the devils

Ñ The Portrait of artist as a young Dog

DRAMA

Under  Milk wood

Ñ Poem in October 7 stanza poem

Ñ Separated into 10 lines

Ñ Found in the volume “Death and Entrance”

Ñ Vision of childhood vs. momentous frustrated urban help

Ñ Comparing and contrasting pictures of village life and town life, which shows backward and forward movement

Ñ A S Collins says “A passionate love of nature likened to childhood memories produced a beauty that touches the heart and stirs the sense”

POEM

It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbor and neighbor wood
   And the mussel pooled and the heron
           Priested shore
       The morning beckon
With water praying and call of seagull and rook
And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall
       Myself to set foot
           That second
In the still sleeping town and set forth.

My birthday began with the water-
Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name
   Above the farms and the white horses
           And I rose
       In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
High tide and the heron dived when I took the road
       Over the border
           And the gates
Of the town closed as the town awoke.

A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
   Blackbirds and the sun of October
           Summery
       On the hill's shoulder,
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly
Come in the morning where I wandered and listened
       To the rain wringing
           Wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me.

Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
   With its horns through mist and the castle
           Brown as owls
       But all the gardens
Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
       There could I marvel
           My birthday
Away but the weather turned around.

It turned away from the blithe country
And down the other air and the blue altered sky
   Streamed again a wonder of summer
           With apples
       Pears and red currants
And I saw in the turning so clearly a child's
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
       Through the parables
           Of sun light
And the legends of the green chapels

And the twice told fields of infancy
That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.
   These were the woods the river and sea
           Where a boy
       In the listening
Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy
To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.
       And the mystery
           Sang alive
Still in the water and singingbirds.

And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
   Joy of the long dead child sang burning
           In the sun.
       It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.
       O may my heart's truth
           Still be sung
On this high hill in a year's turning.

EXPLANATION

Ñ Summary Speaker’s journey in an autumn, up to a hill to reclaim childhood joy, the summer season and his spirituality

Ñ The poem begins with the speaker stating that he was 30 yrs. old when he wrote this poem.

Ñ It was his birthday and he chose to walk

Ñ He left his home, travelled alongside the water’s edge, listened to the seabirds and the woods

Ñ He started climbing the hills. At the same time seasons  began to change

Ñ Autumn and its cool air faded away and the summer returned

Ñ The rain continued as he climbed as did the presence of birds

Ñ These two images are crucial for the poet’s understanding of happiness and childhood

Ñ When he finally got to the top of the hill, it was like he got heaven

Ñ The speaker recalls visiting the place along with his mother and what it meant to him then.

Ñ He hoped while on the hill that joy he experienced will last throughout the year

Ñ He would return to reclaim it when he turns thirty one

Critical analysis

Ñ Village: Swansea

Ñ Hill: Fern hill

Ñ The age is described in years of progress towards heaven

Ñ He describes the shores as being priested by herons

Ñ Morning is praying

Ñ The waves dip and rise as if kneeling in prayer

Ñ He speaks about the gates he has to open and borders he has to cross

Ñ Dylan Thomas’ sacramental view of nature and the theme of remembered childhood October is between summer and winter similarly the age of thirty is between childhood and maturity

Ñ The poise between childish glory and the sadness of maturity, summer and winter, past and future is maintained to the end.