Life, love and literature

I have often mentioned that I was a country child—grew up on a ranch with a creek running behind the barn, the Clearfork of the mighty Brazos River a mere 3 miles from the ranch, horses, cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, even rattlesnakes periodically to put fear into my otherwise perfect childhood!! Long before I had read FERN HILL by the Welch poet Dylan Thomas, I had written poems about my own life growing up on that Texas ranch. I was taking a creative writing class and our teacher told us to read FERN HILL. I didn’t know that this poem existed!! It is one of the very best examples to illustrate that literature is life. I actually found myself as the poet described his childhood growing up on a farm! It is so full of imagery and insight. We live our youth not realizing how quickly life passes. His poem ends with the now famous lines “Time held me green and dying though I sang in my chains like the sea!” He used the color green throughout the poem to describe youth and innocence as well as just the simple joy of being alive. I had been introduced to William Wordsworth’ s ODE ON INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY in a college English class!! He made a big impact on me — my favorite English poet to this day, but Dylan Thomas made me relive my own childhood with his poignant description of a country child, loving life thoroughly! If you’ve never read FERN HILL, you must experience it!!