It now has “lips” that drink from the fountain of time. At the same time, it has a similar influence on the plants. The first of these is unstressed and the second stressed. The force that drives the water through … The force that drives the water through the rocksDrives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streamsTurns mine to wax.And I am dumb to mouth unto my veinsHow at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks. Time should be among them. And I am dumb to tell the lover's tombHow at my sheet goes the same crooked worm. The “her” the speaker refers to in the third line is time itself. They follow, vaguely, the pattens of ABABA, but there are numerous instances in which this is broken. These include, but are not limited to, alliteration, enjambment, and personification. That’s what Dylan Thomas remains for the thousands of people who heard him read during several U.S. lecture tours in the 1950s. Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees. The force that through the green fuse drives the flower by Dylan Thomas, In My Craft Or Sullen Art by Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas, And Death Shall Have No Dominion by Dylan Thomas. This means that there are five sets of two beats per line. In the final two lines of this stanza, he adds that he is “dumb to tell the hanging man,” or a man who has been hanged/executed that the “lime” that covers a dead body is made of the same material as the body itself. Thomas once said of his own poems that they had to be read either very soft or very loud. My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force, as a metaphor for time, creates and destroys. The “shroud” mentioned in the third line is s reference to the sail of a ship, something positive and powerful, but also to a cloth wrapped around a body after death. After the refrain in this stanza the speaker says that he can’t tell the wind about time’s power. It powers, or “drives,” the flower. It makes him young, “green,” and powerful but in the end, also destroy him. Thomas does not allow the reader to go along for long without return to the darker side of time and life. There is a comparison growing between natural imagery and the speaker. Is my destroyer. The speaker, who is living, is part of the dead and the dead are part of him. It is through advertising that we are able to contribute to charity. Love, rather than water, is coming from the fountain. From The Poems of Dylan Thomas, published by New Directions. The third stanza brings several more positives and negatives into the picture. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose. In the first stanza, the speaker introduces an unidentified “force” that raises the stems—or "fuses"—of flowers, as well as powering the speaker’s youth and liveliness. Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower’ by Dylan Thomas is a complex poem that uses an extended metaphor to speak about the themes of time, life, and love. In this instance, love is dead. He found out early that … The force that through the green fuse drives the flowerDrives my green age; that blasts the roots of treesIs my destroyer.And I am dumb to tell the crooked roseMy youth is bent by the same wintry fever. Time is as complex and unknowable as the universe itself. He speaks about a power in his body that moves his blood but that also moves the water in rivers and stirs quicksand. Form just this first line the tone is serious but the content suggests something positive. It is a representation of life. Time needs the power and vitality of water in order to exist. ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower’ by Dylan Thomas is a five stanza poem that’s separated into four sets of five lines, known as quintains and one final couplet (a set of two lines). Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. In the first stanza of ‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower,’ the speaker begins by making use of the line that later came to be used as the title of the poem. Subscribe to our mailing list and get new poetry analysis updates straight to your inbox. The majority of these lines follow a pattern of iambic pentameter. The speaker is in such awe of the force that he is momentarily unable to speak. Here, he is speaking about the entire universe, its creation, its solidity but also its ephemeral nature. Thank you! But, in the end, he admits that that nature is impossible to understand. "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower" is a poem by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas— the poem that "made Thomas famous." The poem takes the reader through a number of scenarios in which the speaker compares himself to other forms of life. It is sucked up by time. It is in a tomb, reminding the reader of time’s ability to destroy everything. A reader should be reminded of the references to water, youth, and vitality in the second stanza. He is alluding again to the larger circle of life and power of interconnectivity that runs through all things on earth. There are several examples in this poem, for instance, the transition between lines two and three of the first stanza. My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. Subscribe to our mailing list to get the latest and greatest poetry updates. But, at the same time, it stirs “the quicksand” too. Thomas wrote "The Force…" when he was just nineteen, and it was published as part of his first book, 18 Poems, in 1934. My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force that through the green fuse drives the flower. Yet despite these positive images, the force also destroys trees, and even the speaker himself. It is a new source of life on earth. For instance, “destroyer” and “fever” in the first stanza. Kushner describes how “The Force That through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” “can be read as an ode to life or a meditation on death.” A legend. Every single person that visits PoemAnalysis.com has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. This poem definitely starts off with a bang, not a whimper. Please continue to help us support the fight against dementia. The lips of time leech to the fountain head; Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood. This “force,” whatever it may be, makes flowers live. How time has ticked a heaven round the stars. In the next lines, he adds that it both “drives” his own “green age” and “blasts the roots of trees”. How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm. 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. It controls life and death. What's your thoughts? In the poem "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower," Dylan Thomas utilizes a clever metaphor to make a powerful commentary the endless cycle of life and death. You can read the full poem The force that through the green fuse drives the flower here. We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose. How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks. The fifth stanza uses the refrain ‘And I am dumb” for the last time. The login page will open in a new tab. Just as the speaker was unable to communicate his interconnectedness to the flower, he is also unable to speak to the mountain spring. Copyright © 1937, 1945, 1955, 1962, 1966, 1967 the Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas.

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