Dylan Thomas
"The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" (2516)
Read through the first stanza. What does it mean to "drive" here? "Blast"? What about the word "dumb"?
How is it possible for a force to drive water through rock and circulate blood? How is this stanza like the one before it?
What do the first lines in the third stanza allude to? Why the word "shroud" (line 13)?
In the next stanza, the image is that of a leech. But what is a leech here. That is what takes blood and "calm[s] her sores" (18)?
What are we to make of the last two lines?
"Fern Hill" (2522)
Look though the poem's first 45 lines. What do these lines say about the speaker's youth or youth in general? Point to specific passages to support your answer?
Line 46 reads, "Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me." Why the word "lamb"?
What are we to make of lines 51-54?
Is the overall observation or conclusion of the poem positive, negative, or neutral?
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" (2524)
Why would someone call death "that good night" and yet want them to go it "gently"?
There are four types of men mentioned in the poem. Why do each "rage against the dying of the light"
wise -- the words have "no forked lightning"
good -- their deeds are frail
wild -- learn late they have wasted life
grave -- find they could have been happy
Why would the speaker ask for a blessing and a curse?