The first stanza of Dylan Thomas’s poem, “The Force That through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower,” Thomas alludes to the creation and destruction of the human body—and how through time the two are inseparable. Through denotation and connotation, Thomas creates contradiction with his imagery—which could be a very powerful theme later in the poem. Perhaps, it is through this lens, that the reader can view their own existence as something of a complication.
In the poems opening, Thomas writes, “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower / Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees” (lines 1-2). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “force” denotes a multitude of different connotations, such as: strength, power, vigor, violence, to compel/constrain/oblige, to put strained sense/energy upon, etc. The word “force” is a sign or marker. The word suggests the above list but when read along with “. . . that through the green fuse drives the flower / Drives my green age” the word then mutates into an all encompassing “energy.” Thus, the energy which drives (drives = momentum/direction) through the green stem of a flower—drives my body as well.
However, this connotation doesn’t work for it creates a contradiction. For instance, Thomas uses words like “green age” (line 2) to solidify that complication/contradiction to his poem. Yes, “green” can denote the literal “color” green, but after looking in the OED, green could also refer to “youthful and tender age.” Thomas follows the word green with the word “age.” We measure ones age through time; like the rings on a tree stump, the wrinkles on ones face, or by literal dates of birth. To place the “positive” youthful word green, next to the “negative” a period of marked existence word age—gives us a contradiction. Here we see the creation of the human body, but in the end, through ageing—we recognize its destruction.
But maybe the speaker doesn’t yet realize his own destruction. Thomas pens additional denotation and connotation which ultimately contradicts. Thomas writes, “. . . that blasts the roots of trees / Is my destroyer” (2-3). “Roots” are attached to both flowers and trees. Roots run deep and hold plants firmly to the ground. They live underground, drinking the nourishment of the earth by branching out where it’s cool and moist. In youth, do we not cling to our family? Do we not feed from the breast or food they provide us? Thomas writes, “Is my destroyer” (3). Are parents not our protectors, for in the late 19th century destroyer “ships” began to patrol the coasts protecting the mainland from enemy onslaught. Here, however, is the contradiction. Roots descend in a downward direction, away from light, and like the earlier reference to age—this downward direction has an end point. Roots can only reach so far, and the word “destroyer” suggests destruction.
In the last two lines of the stanza, Thomas writes, “And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose / My youth is bent by the same wintry fever” (4-5). A rose is a plant of surpassing beauty—yet this one carries a flaw of being crooked. Here the imagery contradicts, for when we age, we age gracefully—yet our body, our bones become crooked. Our blossoming youth (“my youth is bent with the same wintry fever”) becomes crooked, cold, and sick through time. The last two words of the first stanza offer yet another contradiction, for winter is a season that is cold, and fever is a sickness that is hot. Both, however deal in temperature yet both are opposites of each other in terms of the direction in which the rise.
In the end, I think this first stanza is alluding to an idea concerning the creation and destruction of the human existence. That life is a contradiction. In this first stanza the human body or condition is focused on and is related to elements of nature. However, no absolutes can exist, for the imagery contradicts one another through denotation and connotation. Maybe later, after more thorough class discussions, this “contradiction” will be more or less apparent.
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