Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill" celebrates the simplicity of childhood, and yet is written in a complexity of language and symbols which aligns him with other modernist poets. Thomas uses an intricate pattern of repetition and sounds to create images of a bygone age of innocence that disappeared before the narrator could even realize what was happening. By examining this different form of verse that Thomas uses, and looking at the themes and imagery of "Fern Hill" one is able to see how Thomas is a modernist poet and the great skill in his work.
In his poetry Thomas works from emotion and "embodies a revolt against modern classicism, Oxbridge intellectualism, and the "King's English" of London" (Kershner, 120). "Fern Hill" is written from Thomas' own personal experiences, something for which he was highly criticized, but he uses his experiences to recreate the beautiful images that draw the reader in. In his poetry Thomas used a full-throated rhetoric that some critics saw as "hypertension of vocabulary and rhythm masking impoverishment of theme" (Ellmann & O'Clair, 919). …
