Poet's Corner

"The Force that through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower"

Dylan Thomas

Poem explanation

1	The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
	Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
	Is my destroyer.
	And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose

5	My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
	The force that drives the water through the rocks
	Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
	Turns mine to wax.
	And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins 

10	How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
	The hand that whirls the water in the pool
	Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
	Hauls my shroud sail.
	And I am dumb to tell the hanging man

15	How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.
	The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
	Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
	Shall calm her sores.
	And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind

20	How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
	And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
	How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.