oem begins on the morning of the poet’s thirtieth birthday.  It is a rainy October morning. He wakes up early to take a walk. The town is still sleeping. Nature is filled with the sounds of the seashore and nearby woods. He hears the sound of the sailing boats, all the sea birds, and the forest birds. He hears the call of seagulls. He also sees a hunting heron dive into the water. The autumn rain begins to fall. The poet imagines that the rainy autumn is showering down all his memories on him. As he writes:

“In rainy autumn

And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.”

Thomas leaves the sleeping town behind and walks toward the countryside. This physical walk soon becomes a journey into memory. Nature’s beauty takes him back to his happy childhood days.

Changing Weather: As the poet climbs a hill, the October morning changes. He sees bright sunlight. The “sun of October” suddenly becomes “summery.” The autumn day becomes a summer midday. From the height, the faraway town looks tiny. The poet looks at the faraway church at the seashore. The church looks tiny, like a snail with its horn. In the bright sunlight, he sees apples, pears, and red currants. His mood changes with the changing weather. The warm summer light brings back his forgotten memories, when he walked with his mother. He says:

“And I saw… a child's

Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother”

The poet stands in autumn, but the boy in him returns to summer. Nature’s beauty takes him back to his happy childhood days.

Feeling Childhood Joy: In nature, Thomas feels the childhood joy again. The woods, river, and sea bring back his childhood memories. He feels happy like a child to see the green fields. He feels the same emotion and excitement in him now that he felt as a little boy. As he says:

“…His tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine.”

That boy found his deepest joys in the trees, the stones, and the fish in the tide. The poet feels that the boy is still alive inside him. This union of past and present is the heart of the poem’s treatment of childhood. Childhood is not lost — it lives in the adult through memory, nature, and imagination.

Hope to Find the Same Joy in the Future: Now the poet is on the hilltop. There, he still feels the childhood joy under the bright sunlight. It is his thirtieth birthday. He feels like standing in midday summer. But the leaves on the trees in the town below are turning autumnal red. He calls these leaves “October blood.” It reminds him that he is no longer a child. Nonetheless, the childhood joy is still in him. He wishes to find the same joy in nature on his future birthdays. As he writes:

“O may my heart's truth

Still be sung…”

In conclusion, Dylan Thomas treats childhood as a golden time of joy, innocence, and unity with nature. The beautiful nature brings back his childhood memories. For him, to remember childhood is not to escape the present. But to carry forward the purest joy into the future.