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Date Posted: 15:59:32 12/07/03 Sun
Author: Tinker
Subject: The Force That Through the Green Fuse by Dylan Thomas Commentary

THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER
by Dylan Thomas

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.    L5
The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.    L10
The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.    L15
The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.    L20
And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.


Summary: The poem shows the connection between humanity and nature. Taking it another force of life “drives” nature, also “drives the narrator or the poet. But the life force that drives, is also the force that eventually ages and kills. This is a very difficult poem to summarize because it doesn’t tell a story, it explores, and there are many layers.

Meaning and Themes: The poem is a meditation of man’s life and demise as seen through nature’s evolutionary process.

Form: This lyrical meditation is written in 4 quintains, the poem ending in a couplet. The lines are irregular iambic pentamenter, with the exception of the third line of each quintain which is iambic bimeter. There is a rhyme scheme of sorts that begins abaca, continuing throughout the poem, using more off rhyme until no rhyme at all is used. There is repetition of the fourth line phrase “And I am dumb” and after the first quintain, each fifth line repeats the exclamatory “How. . . .”. The ending couplet again repeats the phrase “and I am dumb” and exclaims “how”…..

Title: The title is the first line of the poem which in contemporary poetry would be a no-no but at the time this was written was quite common. It sets up the metaphor in detailed technical observation.

Tone: There is an energy in this poem, although it speaks of inevitable death, the narrator seems to see death as part of the process but has not given into it. There is still a vitality and even an admonition of the realization that the vitality will be gone all too soon.

Words:

1. Choice and placement: The words of the first line reveal the genius behind this poem. It begins with power, [i]The force [/i] switches to a vivid image [i]“that through the green fuse”[/i] which not only describes a physical appearance, it says it not only is a conduit for the force, it is also a “fuse” or conduit for destruction. The word “drives” is repeated 4 times in the poem emphasizing the intensity of the energy. The flower is nature’s maturity, the payoff. After the flower in full bloom, comes a wilting, then death.

2 Texture The poem flows like the mountain stream because of the meter and enjambment.

3. Muscle The words used are strong, forceful, “drives, blasts, destroyer, dumb, crooked, fever, rocks, blood, mouthing streams, whirls, blowing wind, shroud sail, hanging man, leech…..

4. Sound Patterns: True to Thomas writing, the sounds of this poem beg to be read out loud.
alliteration force/ fuse/ flower, mountain/mouth, spring/same/sucks whirls/water/ shroud/sail, lips/ leech, weather’s /wind, time/ ticked… assonance green/trees, mountain/mouth, ropes/blowing, hanging/man, clay/made, consonance red/blood,

5. Surprise: “the flower” is almost a surprise as an end word of such a powerful first line, ending in an unstressed syllable. A powerful image ending at a flower. Yet it rhymes with the L3 end word another unstressed end syllable, the word “destroyer” carries force.

6. Kinship: L1 “The force that though the green fuse drives” without finishing with “the flower” could conjure a totally different image. Power and energy rushing forward, infusing the poem with the same power and energy.

Imagery:

1. literal image “green fuse drives the flower” “blasts the roots of trees” “crooked rose”, “water through the rocks”, “red blood”, “hand that whirls the water in the pool”, stirs the quicksand”, ropes the blowing wind”, “hauls my shoud sail”

2. figurative image – Metaphor The poem is a sustained metaphor in which the poet transfers his meditation of life’s force, the evolution process of nature apply to humanity as well as nature. The metaphor is sustained throughout the poem and is not limited to a couple of lines. Personification, “mouthing streams”, “lips of time”. Metonymy “how at my sheet goes the same crooked worm” (the sheet representing the corpse). Synesthesia “drives my green age” (green suggesting youth), The poem contains no simile, oxymoron orsynecdoche .

3. Symbol “green fuse” describes a plant stem, but it is more. It is a conduit of life’s force and a detonator for its termination.

Speaker: The narrator seems to be the poet in meditation. Of course we should never assume the narrator or protagonist of the poem is the poet but in this case I find it difficult to separate them.

Epiphany: The poem expands upon life’s force and the connection between humanity and nature, but in the 3rd quintain, it seems to switch to focus only on death with the shroud sail, and the hangeman’s lime….

The Poet: http://www.bigeye.com/dylan.htm

Dylan Thomas a Welsh poet, 1914-1953 died at the age of 39 from alcoholism. Flamboyant, dramatic, and romantic. He was known to perform his poetry and his deep musical voice probably influenced his word choices, since the sounds of his poems resonate. It would be criminal to never read one of his poems out loud. I have heard a recording of his own reading of Do Not Go Gentle and found his voice dramatic and full of passion.

"....the composition of his poetry, for which he used separate work sheets and would spend sometimes several days on a single line, while the poem was built up phrase by phrase, at glacier like speed." Vernon Watkins, intro to Adventures in the Skin Trade,

The Force That Through the Green Fuse was published in Eighteen Poems in 1934 , when Dylan was only 20 years old.

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