Figurative Language In Fern Hill By Dylan Thomas

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Recommended: Significance of figurative language in literary writing

"Fern Hill" “Fern Hill” was written to show Dylan Thomas’s disappointment for the lack of appreciation he had for his carefree life as a child. Figurative language is used to create a deeper connection between the layers of the poem from the surface story to the underlying allegorical meaning. These layers, as well as the lilting pattern of the poem, add to the mood’s progression throughout the story. The overall point, involving the change through the narrator’s life and his nostalgia for the carefree life he no longer has, sums up the theme: that the changes of life over time are not always pleasant. At the beginning of the poem, Thomas uses figurative language to paint a beautiful picture of his childhood. An example of this can be found in the third stanza, where instead of saying “all night long”, he opts for "all the moon long" (Thomas line 24), giving a more romantic and nostalgic feeling. The romanticized scene shows how the narrator feels as he looks back on his childhood. Rather than blandly mentioning summer, Thomas describes “the sun born over and over” (39). These two phrases start the poem off with a happy, somewhat sentimental mood, giving a feeling of the attitude the …show more content…

The comparisons drawn between figurative and literal concepts give the poem many double meanings that lend to the theme of an unhappy progression of time. Added to these layers is the musical quality Thomas creates through the use of rhythm, meter, and other musical devices. This adds to the mood of the poem, which helps show what the narrator is missing from his childhood. Over the course of the story that is told, the mood progressively becomes darker as the narrator beings to mourn the simplicity of life that he lost to time. By the end of the poem, Dylan Thomas’s point is clear: the changes of life over time are not always pleasant, but will happen

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