Transcript DYLAN THOMAS - Mrs. Campbell's English 10 Class

PINAR KILIÇ
ŞULE ASLAN
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas
Born
27 October 1914
Swansea, Wales, UK
Died
9 November 1953 (aged 39)
New York, USA
Occupation
Poet
Literary movement
Modernism
Romanticism
Spouse(s)
Caitlin Macnamara (1937-1953)
Children
Llewelyn Edouard Thomas (19392000)
Aeronwy Bryn Thomas (b. 1943)
Colm Garan Hart Thomas (b.
1949)
Early life
• Dylan Thomas was born in the Uplands area
of Swansea, South Wales, on 27 October
1914.
• His father, David John Thomas, was an
English master who taught English literature
at the local grammar school.
• His mother, Florence Hannah Thomas (née
Williams), was a seamstress born in Swansea.
• Dylan had a sister, Nancy, eight years older
than him.
Early life
• His childhood was spent largely in Swansea,
with regular summer trips to visit his
maternal aunt's Carmarthenshire dairy farm.
These rural sojourns and the contrast with
the town life of Swansea provided inspiration
for much of his work, notably many short
stories, radio essays and the poem Fern Hill.
Thomas was known to be a sickly child who
shied away from school and preferred
reading on his own
Education
• Thomas's formal education began at Mrs. Hole's
'Dame School', a private school, which was situated a
few streets away on Mirador Crescent.
• In October 1925, Thomas attended the single-sex
Swansea Grammar School, in the Mount Pleasant
district of the city.
• Thomas's first poem was published in the school's
magazine, of which he later became an editor. He left
school at 16 to become a reporter for the local
newspaper, the South Wales Daily Post only to leave
the job under pressure 18 months later in 1932. He
then joined an amateur dramatic group in Mumbles,
but still continued to work as a freelance journalist
for a few more years.
Career
• Thomas wrote half of his
poems and many short stories
while living at his Cwmdonkin
home, “And death shall have
no dominion” is one of his best
known works written at this
address.
• His highly acclaimed first
poetry volume, 18 Poems, was
published on 18 December
1934, the same year he moved
to London.
Career
• The publication of Deaths and Entrances in
1946 was a major turning point in his career.
• Thomas was well known for being a versatile
and dynamic speaker, best known for his
poetry readings.
• His powerful voice would captivate American
audiences during his speaking tours of the
early 1950s. He made over 200 broadcasts for
the BBC.
Marriage and children
• In the spring of 1936,
Dylan Thomas met
Caitlin MacNamara, a
dancer. They met in the
Wheatsheaf public
house, in the Fitzrovia
area of London's West
End. A drunken Thomas
proposed marriage on
the spot, and the two
began a courtship.
Addiction
• Thomas liked to boast about
his addiction, saying;
“An alcoholic is someone you
don't like, who drinks as much
as you do.”
• Thomas "liked the taste of
whisky," and he did quite his
fair share of drinking, although
the amount he is supposed to
have drunk may have been an
exaggeration.
Style
• Thomas's verbal style played against strict
verse forms, such as the villanelle ("Do Not
Go Gentle into That Good Night").
• His images were carefully ordered in a
patterned sequence, and his major theme
was the unity of all life, the continuing
process of life and death and new life that
linked the generations.
• Thomas saw biology as a magical
transformation producing unity out of
diversity, and in his poetry he sought a poetic
ritual to celebrate this unity.
• He saw men and women locked in cycles of
growth, love, procreation, new growth,
death, and new life again. Therefore, each
image engenders its opposite.
• Thomas derived his closely woven,
sometimes self-contradictory images from
the Bible, Welsh folklore and preaching, and
Freud.
Poetry
• Thomas's poetry is famous for its musicality,
most notable in poems such as Fern Hill, In
the White Giant's Thigh, In Country Sleep and
Ballad of the Long-legged Bait. Do not go
gentle into that good night, possibly his most
popular poem, is unrepresentative of his
usual poetic style.
• Thomas once confided that the poems which
had most influenced him were Mother Goose
rhymes which his parents taught him when
he was a child. He did not understand all of
their contents, but he loved their sounds, and
the acoustic qualities of the English language
became his focus in his work later.
• He claimed that the meanings of a poem
were of "very secondary nature" to him.
Bibliography
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Poetry
18 Poems (1934)
The Map of Love (1939)
Twenty-Five Poems (1936)
New Poems (1943)
Deaths and Entrances (1946)
Twenty-Six Poems (1950)
In Country Sleep (1952)
Collected Poems, 1934-1952 (1952)
Death
• Dylan Thomas died in New York on 9
November 1953. The first rumours were of a
brain haemorrhage, followed by reports that
he had been mugged. Soon came the stories
about alcohol, that he had drunk himself to
death. Later, there were speculations about
drugs and diabetes.
Impact on other cultural figures
• Musician Bob Dylan once said the work of Dylan
Thomas influenced the change of his name from
Zimmerman to Dylan
• Welsh musician John Cale has been highly
influenced by the work of Dylan Thomas, even
setting several of his poems (There Was a
Saviour, On a Wedding Anniversary, Lie Still,
Sleep Becalmed and Do Not Go Gentle Into That
Good Night) to orchestral music on his 1989
album Words for the Dying, as well as a musical
setting of A Child's Christmas in Wales on his
album Paris 1919.
• American author Shirley
Jackson met Thomas once
briefly in her family home and
wrote several short stories
dedicated to and loosely based
around Thomas.
• American band Brave Saint
Saturn quoted a portion of the
poem "And death shall have no
dominion" in the song "Here is
the News" from the album AntiMeridian.
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
• Do not go gentle into that good night, a
villanelle composed in 1952, is considered to
be among the finest works by Dylan Thomas .
Originally published in the journal Botteghe
Oscure in 1951, it also appeared as part of the
collection "In Country Sleep."
• Written for his dying father, it is one of
Thomas's most-quoted works.
Subject
• Dylan Thomas’ father had been a robust,
militant man most of his life, and when in his
eighties, he became blind and weak, his son
was disturbed seeing his father become “soft”
or “gentle.” In this poem, Thomas is rousing
his father to continue being the fierce man he
had previously been.
• Thomas watched his father, formerly in the
Army, grow weak and frail with old age. Thus,
the speaker in his poem tries to convince his
father to fight against imminent death.
• The speaker addresses his father using wise
men, good men, wild men, or grave men as
examples to illustrate the same message:
that no matter how they have lived their lives
or what they feel at the end they should die
fighting. He implies that one should not die
without fighting for one's life, or after life.
• Stanza 1: The first line is a command, “Do not
go gentle into that good night.”
Don’t give up easily.
• The second line” Old age should burn and rave
at close of day” offers the speaker’s belief that
even when old and infirm, the man should
stay energetic and complain if necessary as
long as he does not give in to death easily.
• Then line three again is a command, “Rage,
rage against the dying of the light”:
Fight, complain, rail against the oncoming of
death.
Stanza 2
Though wise men at their
end know dark is right,
Because their words had
forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that
good night.
fork: v. branch out, split,
separate, divide; make
into the shape of a fork
• Even though wise men
know that they cannot
keep death away
forever and especially if
they have not
accomplished their
goals in life, they don’t
accept death easily;
they “Do not go gentle .
. . .”
Stanza 3
Good men, the last wave by,
crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have
danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of
the light.
frail: adj. fragile; flimsy; weak,
slight, thin;
bay: n. small arm of the sea
where the shore curves
inward
• Good men exclaim what might
have been, their “frail deed”
might have shone like the sun
reflecting off the waters of a
“green bay,” and they, therefore,
“Rage, rage” against the
oncoming of death.
Stanza 4
Wild men who caught and
sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they
grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that
good night.
• Wild men whose antics
seemed to shine as
brightly as the sun and
who thought they were
so optimistic, but later
realized they spent
much of their life in
grief, still they “Do not
go gentle . . . .”
Stanza 5
Grave men, near death,
who see with blinding
sight
Blind eyes could blaze like
meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the
dying of the light.
gay: adj. happy, cheerful;
• Grave men whose eyes
are fading fast can still
flash life’s happiness, as
they “Rage, rage . .
Stanza 6
And you, my father, there
on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with
your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that
good night.
Rage, rage against the
dying of the light.
• The speaker addresses
his father. “And so my
father you are nearing
death—yell at me,
scream at me, cry out;
to see you do that
would be a blessing for
me and I beg you to
show me that militant
man you once were: Do
not go gentle . . . . ”
Other explanations…
• Another explication is that the speaker admits that death is unavoidable,
but encourages all men to fight death. This is not for their own sake, but
to give closure and hope to the kin that they will leave behind. To
support this, he gives examples of wise men, good men, wild men, and
grave men to his father, who was dying at the time this poem was
written. There is little textual evidence for this interpretation, however,
except the words "curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray." Also,
it has been historically stated that Thomas never showed this poem to his
father; if so, it would seem that Thomas composed it more for his own
benefit than his father's.
Literary devices:
• The form on the poem is a villanelle, with a rime
scheme alternating “night” and “day.”
• “Good night” is a metaphor.
• “Dying of the light” is a metaphor.
• “Old age should burn and rave” in line 2 is a
combination of rhetoric and personification.
Literary devices:
• “Burn” in that same line is used metaphorically, as is
“dark” in line 4.
• In line 5 “their words had forked no lightning” is
metaphorical.
• Line 8 “Their frail deeds might have danced in a
green bay” employs personification and metaphor.
Literary devices:
• Line 10 “Wild men who sang the sun in flight” is
exaggeration and metaphor.
• Line 11 “they grieved it on its way” is also exaggeration
and metaphor.
• Line 14 “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors” is a simile.
• Line 17 “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I
pray” is a paradox.
THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER
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.
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.
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.
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.
And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked
worm.
THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN
FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER
• ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the
flower’ is a poem by Dylan Thomas written in the
1930s. It is a most beautiful poem full of wistfulness
and sorrow with a sense of helplessness.
• In the poem Thomas handles all of the literary
elements with dexterity with possible interpretations.
But the general theme, the cycle of life, is evident
through his skillful use of imagery, symbolism, and
connotation.
Theme
• The main theme of this poem is the
connection between nature and life. Thomas
speaks of a mysterious and unstoppable force
that controls both mankind and nature,
forever linking them together, as his ‘youth is
bent by the same wintry fever’ as the ‘crooked
rose’, and he believes that the lives of mankind
and nature are not separable.
Theme
• Thomas talks about a power, “the force”, which
pushes the flower up through the earth and the
water through the rocks; makes the water swirl
in a circle and sends the sailboat moving
through the water; and moves the quicksand
downward taking everything with it that got
caught in its spin.
• There is a theme of regeneration in all stanzas.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 1
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. (1-5)
fuse : n. projectiles for weaponry
blast: v. to explode
crooked: adj. evil, corrupt
wintry: adj. cold, snowy
• The “green fuse” represents
the stem of the flower, but
through connotation “fuse” is
thought of as something
explosive, contrary to a
gentle flower.
• The word “green” implies
youth and growth as he
describes his age. In the
second and third lines, the
force that produced life in
the flower and himself is
described as the same force
that destroys life.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 1
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. (1-5)
• The fourth line shatters the
beautiful image of a rose, a
symbol of healthiness and
strength, when it is
described as crooked,
inviting negative
connotations. Just as the
rose is delicate, he is also
weakened and the seasons of
his life change from
springtime liveliness to
“wintry fever.” The image of a
frail old man comes to mind.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 2
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. (6-10)
mouthing: adj. speaking
• The “force” here extends the
flow of the stream as it drives
it along, similar to the first
stanza in which the force
extended the growth of the
flower.
• “Red blood” is similar to
“green age” from the first
stanza – they both represent
life and vivacity. In lines
seven and eight “the force”
becomes destructive again as
in the first stanza.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 2
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. (6-10)
• The force that pushed life
along becomes the force that
takes away life as it “dries”
the stream and turns the
speaker’s blood to “wax,”
which represents the
speaker’s stiff corpse after
embalming.
• As in the first stanza he is
unable to communicate his
feelings. An attempt to
explain the situation to his
body would be futile, since it
is already lifeless.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 3
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. (1115)
whirl: v. to spin around
clay: n. workable earth material
lime: n. binding material
• The “hand” agitates the
normally calm waters of the
pool and the generally
motionless quicksand, and it
is so powerful that it also
controls the wind.
• The third line of this stanza is
a double entendre. The
speaker can be referring to a
ship where the “shroud” is
one of the ropes that support
a ship’s mast; in this case the
“hand’s” power is
demonstrated as it controls
the ship’s course.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 3
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. (1115)
• The “shroud” would be the
sheet used to wrap a dead
body for burial.
• In the fourth and fifth lines
the speaker find it senseless
to communicate his feelings
with the “hanging man” since
they both share the same
fate. The speaker’s body, his
“clay,” will be in the
hangman’s cavity, which is
filled with “lime” to prevent
the smell of rotting corpses.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 4
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.
(16-20)
leech: v. to remove the soluble
constituents from by subjecting to
the action of percolating water or
other liquid
• The denotation of
“fountainhead” is an original
source, where life begins,
time leeches the fountain
head just as age exhausts
life.
• The next line leans towards
the reoccurring theme of
death where “fallen blood”
represents a dead person.
• The speaker brings another
life into being through
reproduction in line one and
in lines two and three.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 4
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.
(16-20)
tick: v. to click
• Time is referred to as “her”
and the burden on society is
represented by “sores.” He is
incapable of explaining to the
wind how time works
because the wind already
knows the nature of time.
The “weather’s wind” has
been to the heavens and the
stars and has seen all
possible weathers.
Other explanations…
• He describes this force as linking life and death
in an eternal cycle; ‘of my clay is made the
hangman’s lime’. Thomas suggests late in the
poem the name of the force that he is talking
about: ‘(the lips of) time’, emphasising his
point that this force is powerful and central to
all.
Literary devices:
• Structurally the poem follows a certain rhythm:
Each stanza beginning with the word ‘the’, and
the first two stanzas beginning with the same
words altogether: ‘The force that drives’, which
reflects the regularity of this cycle and its
continuance.
• The poet doesn’t use rhymes, but sometimes
uses words that sound similar such as the
ending:
‘tomb’ and ‘worm’, to give a sense of comfort and
regularity when read out.
Literary devices:
• The organisations of ideas in the first three
stanzas are very similar:
The first part concerns (in the first two stanzas)
comparing mankind with nature in terms of life
and creation, and after the semi-colon is the
mention of destruction. Then comes a short line
showing how the force will cause the death of the
poet. The last two lines show how the poet is
unable to articulate the wonders of the power.
Literary devices:
• Word order is sometimes emphatic:
‘The force’ starting a line makes it clear that that
is the major theme of the poem, and the second
line of many of the stanzas begin with a verb that
emphasises power.
Often a verb is used to start the line, such as
‘drives’ and ‘stirs’, to reinforce the importance of
the actions the themed force performs.
Literary devices:
• The use of imagery and contrast in language:
Thomas uses many colours in terms of imagery, which
adds depth and meaning to the poem, as colours can
symbolise numerous things. ‘green’ stresses life and
youth, and also the fact that the same word is used to
describe the age of a human and the life of a flower.
The use of ‘red blood’ also adds to this, as red is a very
healthy and lively colour. His imagery is often
extremely interesting and original. The ‘shroud sail’
reminds the reader of perhaps a Viking funeral, which
draws many connections with the sea and the wind.
And Death Shall Have No Dominion
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
Theme
Theme: The repetition of the lines, ‘And death shall
have no dominion’ reinforces the theme of the poem.
The message rendered was to attain victory over
death and it is even used as the title of the poem. By
repeating the lines at the beginning and end of each
stanza, the poem has developed a nice structure and
a message to the readers. The first stanza idealizes
mankind, the second emphasis on God and suffering
while the third focuses on nature.
The poem is structured into three stanzas each
containing ten lines. The poem is composed in near
rhyme. Near rhyming mean words that come near
rhyming but do not really rhyme. It is also known as
imperfect rhyme.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 1
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean
bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise
again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
Each stanza begins and ends with the title of the
poem, ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion.” In the first
stanza, the poet conveys that in death, all are one.
Race and skin color no longer have any meaning when
a person dies. The dead body reunites with nature. In
death, everyone is naked and shall be one. There’s no
discrimination in death. The poet goes on to say that
after death, men become part of constellations,
something bigger than he was, when he was alive.
Though the dead men’s bones are naked, they shall be
clothed in eternal glory and shall have stars at their
elbows and feet. In the following lines, the poet says
that though the men will go mad they will attain sanity.
Those who have drowned in the sea of human sorrow
shall rise again and taste joy. Moreover, lovers who
were lost will be united after death. Finally he uses the
final lines, ‘and death shall have no dominion.’
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 2
And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.
The second stanza of ‘And Death Shall Have No
Dominion’ takes the reader to a graveyard which is
located on the sea floor. The poet says that one can find
the souls of the sailors or the others who lost their lives
in the sea. According to him, these people died
courageously. Their lives have tortured them, the wheel
of time has tested them but none of these could break
them. Faith has been cracked in two and unicorn evils
will put their horns through them. The ‘unicorn’ is an
ancient mythical creature, sometimes used to symbolize
Christ or God. Unicorn horns are considered as harder
than diamonds and can neutralize poison. Their tears
can heal wounds both of physical and mental nature.
Again the stanza ends with the lines, ‘and death shall
have no dominion’ representing the triumph and main
theme of the poem.
Analysis of the Poem
Stanza 3
And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through
daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
The final stanza talks about the land, along the seashore.
The poet begins the final stanza by saying that the dead are
no longer disturbed by the materialistic world and the
physical elements that made up their homes. Gulls are sea
birds which will no longer cry at their ears; they will not be
able to hear the loud noises made by waves. Yet new life
will spring up, an intrepid life like a flower that ‘lifts its head
to blows of the rain.’ Their innocence shall burst through like
daisies. Their innocence ultimately wins over the sun and
breaks it down. The phrase ‘heads of the characters
hammer through daisies’ hints at the characters of those
dead people who hammer through pain until innocence
breaks them. The daisy blooms as dawn breaks,
symbolizing the burst of innocence. In the same way, death
becomes powerless as humanity regains purity and
recollects hope, disregarding pain and hatred. In this way,
death can be overcome and ‘death shall have no dominion.’
Literary devices:
Poetic devices in “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” included
pun, paradox, repetition, alliteration, metaphors and contrast.
PUN: An example of pun is found in line 12. ‘Windily’ means both
the movement of the sea and also the shroud in which the dead are
buried in the sea.
PARADOX: ‘Unicorn evils through’ is an example of paradox
because unicorn is a symbol of Christ and has nothing to do with
evil. ‘Though they go mad, they shall be sane’ is also an example
of paradox.
REPETITION: The most distinct repetition is ‘and death shall have
no dominion’ which is repeated in every stanza, marks the most
important idea of the poem. The repetition of the word ‘though’ is
repeated in the first stanza reinforces the basic theme and provides
a secure structure.
ALLITERATION: Alliteration is the close repetition of the consonant
sounds at the beginning of words to facilitate narration. ‘Though
lovers be lost love shall not’ is a fine example of alliteration.
Literary devices:
METAPHOR: A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two
things but is not clearly stated.
‘Faith in their hands shall snap in two.’ In this line, the poet has
used a metaphor to compare faith with a wooden stick.
IMAGERY: Images of sea, torture and biblical characters are used
throughout the poem. Sea imagery is found in the first stanza by
depicting that the dead sank in the sea and rose again. In the
second stanza, ‘windings of the sea’ is an image of the sea itself.
Sound of ‘gulls’ and ‘waves’ are examples of sound imagery.
Biblical imagery is found by describing the rise of the dead
symbolizing Christ’s Revelation. The use of unicorn, the mythical
sea creature is also an example of biblical imagery. ‘Twisting on
racks when sinews give way, strapped to a wheel, yet they shall
not break’ brings out an image of the human body of muscles and
bones in pain.
I Fellowed Sleep
I fellowed sleep who kissed me in the brain,
Let fall the tear of time; the sleeper's eye,
Shifting to light, turned on me like a moon.
So, planning-heeled, I flew along my man
And dropped on dreaming and the upward sky.
Faded my elbow ghost, the mothers-eyed,
As, blowing on the angels, I was lost
On that cloud coast to each grave-grabbing shade;
I blew the dreaming fellows to their bed
Where still they sleep unknowing of their ghost.
I fled the earth and, naked, climbed the weather,
Reaching a second ground far from the stars;
And there we wept I and a ghostly other,
My mothers-eyed, upon the tops of trees;
I fled that ground as lightly as a feather.
Then all the matter of the living air
Raised up a voice, and, climbing on the words,
I spelt my vision with a hand and hair,
How light the sleeping on this soily star,
How deep the waking in the worlded clouds.
'My fathers' globe knocks on its nave and sings.'
'This that we tread was, too, your father's land.'
'But this we tread bears the angelic gangs
Sweet are their fathered faces in their wings.'
'These are but dreaming men. Breathe, and they fade.'
There grows the hours' ladder to the sun,
Each rung a love or losing to the last,
The inches monkeyed by the blood of man.
And old, mad man still climbing in his ghost,
My fathers' ghost is climbing in the rain.
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