Fern Hill

poem by Thomas

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Article History

Fern Hill, poem by Dylan Thomas that evokes the joy and the inevitable loss of the world of childhood. It was first published in 1946 in his collection Deaths and Entrances.

“Fern Hill” is narrated by the mature poet, who reflects systematically on the delights of childhood and its symbiotic relationship with the natural world, on the adolescent’s nascent sexuality, and, ultimately, on the loss of childhood innocence and the realization of mortality. Avoiding sentimentality, Thomas created both a celebration and an elegy in the well-known lines:

Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.