"The Force" in Dylan's the Force That Though the Green Fuze Drives the Flower

"The Force" in Dylan 's The Force That Though The Green Fuze Drives The Flower Nature creates, then nature destroys, and this pattern is eternally repeated. The planet Earth exists in all its magnificence through a series of functioning cycles (water, carbon, etc.) that, combined, can be deemed one solitary process: the life cycle. Dylan Thomas’ poem “The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower” creates a dramatic illustration of this cycle. The imagery Thomas evokes of the natural world is beautiful yet simultaneously haunting. Readers envision the growth of a flower, and hear the sounds of waves crashing through rocks, but the sense of dread induced by images of quicksand and blood turned wax gives a sinister edge to Thomas’ words. The poem, in its lyrical style, seems personal to Thomas, as if he himself is the narrator, attempting to comprhehend and describe his own vulnerability to the all-powerful force that governs the cycles of life. He realizes of his inevitable destruction at the hands of something far more powerful than he. Humankind, no different than the wildlife, the rivers, the mountains, and every other earthly component, is entirely subject to the immense force of nature, a force so tremendous that it is imossible for one man to understand completely. What Thomas does understand is his own likeness to the other aspects of the world. The first stanza, in which he compares his own aging to that of a flower, establishes his sense of parity between humanity and nature, which persists throughout the rest of the poem. Just as the flower grows, he himself grows, and just as the rose becomes crooked, so his “youth is bent” (Thomas 5). His “green age” (Thomas 2) is his youthful period of growing, much like the flower during the green season, the spring time. Come winter, the flower will wilt and die, and Thomas likens his own death to that of the flower. He descibes himself as “bent by the same wintry fever” (Thomas 5). Equality between the

Cited: Thomas, Dylan. “The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Damrosch, David, ed. Compact Edition.Vol. B. New York: Longman, 2004. 1372.