Thomas

1. From whose point of view is the poem told? 2. What details tell how the speaker felt when he was “young and easy”? What did he do on the farm? 3. What did the boy fail to realize about time, according to the fifth stanza? 4. Find where time is personified in the poem. Describe the different kinds of intentions Time seems to have in regard to the boy. 5. How would you explain the paradox in the next-to-last line? 6. Read the poem aloud and pay attention to the sound of it. How does its rhythm match its subject and mood? How does Thomas use alliteration and onomatopoeia to provide the sound effects? 7. To whom is the poem addressed? 8. What does the speaker say old age should not do? 9. What four types of people are described in stanzas 2-5? How do all of these people respond to the dying of the light? 10. What does the speaker pray for in the final stanza? 11. What is the “good night”? What pun on the phrase does Thomas intend you to catch? 12. Why would any son beg his father to “Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears”? What might this strange request indicate about the relationship between this father and son?
 * Dylan Thomas Study Questions**
 * “Fern Hill”**
 * “Do Not Go Gentle”**