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.