Analysis of Poem In October

Dylan Thomas 1914 (Swansea) – 1953 (Greenwich Village)



It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
   And the mussel pooled and the heron
           Priested shore
       The morning beckon
With water praying and call of seagull and rook
And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall
       Myself to set foot
           That second
In the still sleeping town and set forth.

My birthday began with the water-
Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name
   Above the farms and the white horses
           And I rose
       In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.
High tide and the heron dived when I took the road
       Over the border
           And the gates
Of the town closed as the town awoke.

A springful of larks in a rolling
Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling
   Blackbirds and the sun of October
           Summery
       On the hill's shoulder,
Here were fond climates and sweet singers suddenly
Come in the morning where I wandered and listened
       To the rain wringing
           Wind blow cold
In the wood faraway under me.

Pale rain over the dwindling harbour
And over the sea wet church the size of a snail
   With its horns through mist and the castle
           Brown as owls
       But all the gardens
Of spring and summer were blooming in the tall tales
Beyond the border and under the lark full cloud.
       There could I marvel
           My birthday
Away but the weather turned around.

It turned away from the blithe country
And down the other air and the blue altered sky
   Streamed again a wonder of summer
           With apples
       Pears and red currants
And I saw in the turning so clearly a child's
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
       Through the parables
           Of sun light
And the legends of the green chapels

And the twice told fields of infancy
That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.
   These were the woods the river and sea
           Where a boy
       In the listening
Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy
To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.
       And the mystery
           Sang alive
Still in the water and singingbirds.

And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
   Joy of the long dead child sang burning
           In the sun.
       It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with October blood.
       O may my heart's truth
           Still be sung
On this high hill in a year's turning.


Scheme AXABAXXXCX DXEXXXXDXX FFDBDGCFXG DXHXXXXHIX GXDJEXDJXE GXGKFKXGXE IXFAXXXXXF
Poetic Form Tetractys  (39%)
Etheree  (36%)
Metre 1111001110 11110110011 001010010 11 01010 11010011101 001110110111 1111 110 001101011 11011010 100110111011 010100110 011 01010 010100101111 110010111101 10010 001 101110101 01110010 10011010110 100011010 1 10110 101100110100 100101110010 10110 111 001101101 1110010010 010011101101 111110010 111 11010 110100100011 010100100111 11110 11 011010101 110110110 010101001101 101010110 110 1011 011001011001 010101111110 10100 111 00101011 001111100 111111011101 100101001 101 00100 101011001111 101001001001 00100 101 1001001 01111011 011010101001 110111110 001 111100 111011100101 101011110101 11111 111 111100110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 2,598
Words 456
Sentences 13
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
Lines Amount 70
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 264
Words per stanza (avg) 63
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Submitted by davidb on November 10, 2021

Modified on May 01, 2023

2:18 min read
437

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", the "play for voices", Under Milk Wood, and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became popular in his lifetime and remained so after his premature death in New York. In his later life he acquired a reputation, which he encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet". more…

All Dylan Thomas poems | Dylan Thomas Books

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