Loss of Childhood in Thomas' Fern Hill and Ode: Intimations of Immortality Through the Use of Nature and Time, "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas and “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” by Williamworth Both deal with the painful loss of childhood. Whileworth acknowledges that wisdom and experience compensate for this loss (Poetry Criticism 370), Thomas sees “life after childhood as slavery” (Viswanathan 286). As "Fern Hill" progresses, Thomas' attitude towards childhood changes from happiness and contentment to sadness and sadness. loss. In the first five stanzas of "Fern Hill", Thomas uses nature as a pleasant childhood memory, but in the last stanza his childhood memories of nature reveal what he has lost. In this last stanza, Thomas, instead of basking in the memory of childhood, can only evoke pain. The metamorphosis of the words "green" and "gold" through his poetry, which varies in connotation from freshness to decay, helps convey Thomas's perceived loss of innocence and carefreeness. Thomas initially personifies Time as "golden" in line 5; time sees Thomas as "the prince of the apple cities", (line 6) worthy of the riches that nature has to offer. Thomas refers to “green and golden” again in verse 10: “green and carefree…” to describe himself as young and blessed. The ironic statement, “green and gold I was a hunter… the calves sang to my horn,” (line 15) demonstrates the power that childhood gives him. A horn traditionally "sings" to another object, but Thomas' calves sing to his horn demonstrating that childhood confers a power unattainable in any other stage of life. Thomas as an adult does not have the power to do the unexpected because the magic of childhood can no longer create these types of illusions. The power of the childhood image... middle of paper......ord "sang" suggests that Thomas ultimately accepts adulthood, even if he does so reluctantly. Thus, while Thomas appears to create "a hell out of heaven" (Paradise Lost, line 255), Worth is able to regress to childhood in his mind and heart and still maintain adult reason and rationality. no longer allow the fear of mortality and adulthood to stop him from "living." child... makes his poetry more of a guide to life than Thomas's. Tommaso, in his regret at accepting age, feels "old in being young"; Worth, however, enlightens the reader on how to feel "young in being old"."