The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower

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



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.

About this poem

Remarkably, Dylan was only 20-years old when her wrote this. There is a deep Spiritual element to this one: what is this Force Dylan's writes of? Is it what the Chinese call Qi? Is it God? Is it what the quantum physicists call The Zero Point Field? It may take a number of reads, but you may start to see that this is written Literally.

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Written on 1934

Submitted by George9@99 on September 13, 2021

Modified on May 01, 2023

54 sec read
297

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAXA XXXXX XBXXX XXXBX XX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 868
Words 177
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 2

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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