“Fern Hill” is a famous nostalgic poem by Dylan Thomas. Look at the key facts of the poem to get a quick conception.

• Full Title: Fern Hill
• Original Title: Fern Hill
• Author: Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914–1953)
• Written Date: Around 1944–1945
• Published Date: 1945 in Horizon magazine (London) ✪✪✪
• First Collected In: Deaths and Entrances (1946) ✪✪✪
• Publisher: J. M. Dent & Sons (for Deaths and Entrances)
• Genre: Lyrical Autobiographical Poem ✪✪✪
• Form: Lyric poem written in six stanzas of nine lines each
• Rhyme Scheme: Irregular; strong use of internal rhyme, alliteration, and assonance instead of a fixed pattern
• Total Lines: 54
• Total Stanza: 6
• Meter: Varied rhythms close to free verse; highly musical and flowing lines
• Tone: Nostalgic, Joyful, Reflective, and Ultimately Mournful 
• Point of View: First-person (Poet’s personal memory of his youth)
• Climax: The realization that time, once merciful and playful, ultimately leads to aging and death. “Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea.” 
• Summary in Short: The poem remembers the poet’s happy childhood on a Welsh farm and shows how time turns that joy into a fading memory.
• Famous Line: “Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea.” ✪✪✪
• Setting:

• Time Setting: Poet’s childhood years (early 1920s)
• Place Setting: The countryside farm “Fern Hill”. It is surrounded by nature, orchards, rivers, and hills. It is the symbol of paradise and lost innocence.

Key Notes

Original Title – Fern Hill: The title of the poem “Fern Hill” comes from a real farmhouse named Fernhill in Carmarthenshire, Wales, where Dylan Thomas spent much of his childhood. The poem is autobiographical, based on the poet’s own personal experiences. The name “Fern Hill” symbolizes childhood, nature, and freedom. Here, the word “Fern” (a kind of green plant) represents the freshness of nature and the purity of innocent life, while “Hill” symbolizes height or elevation, representing the joy, enthusiasm, and golden moments of life during childhood.

Free Verse: Free Verse is a form of poetry that does not follow any fixed pattern of rhyme, meter, or rhythm. The poet expresses thoughts and feelings freely, in a natural, conversational tone. Features:

• There is no fixed rhyme scheme.
• No strict meter or rhythm pattern is followed.
• The poem flows naturally through imagery, sound, and emotion.
• The poet’s thoughts and feelings are expressed directly.
• It is a key feature of modern poetry.