Literary Analysis

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower | by Dylan Thomas

Literary Analysis, Research

The Force of Time

The poem “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower,” by Dylan Thomas, has to be read attentively at least twice to begin to grasp its meaning. In the poem Thomas handles all of the literary elements with dexterity, which is why there are so many possible interpretations. But the general theme of the cycle of life is evident through his skillful use of imagery, symbolism, and connotation.

In the first line of the first stanza Thomas introduces “The Force,” the omnipotent element that is ever-present in the poem.

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
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. (1-5)

The “green fuse” represents the stem of the flower, but through connotation “fuse” is thought of as something explosive, contrary to a gentle flower. The word “green” implies youth, exuberance, and growth as he describes his age. In the second and third lines the force that produced life in the flower and himself is described as the same force that destroys life. The fourth line shatters the beautiful image of a rose, a symbol of healthiness and vigor, when it is described as crooked, inviting negative connotations. Just as the rose is feeble, he is also weakened and the seasons of his life change from springtime liveliness to “wintry fever.” The image of a frail, hunched over old man comes to mind.

The second stanza resembles the first stanza in set-up and message.

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
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks. (6-10)

Once again “the force” is brought up. The “force” here extends the flow of the stream as it drives it along, similar to the first stanza in which the force extended the growth of the flower. “Red blood” is homogenous to “green age” from the first stanza – they both represent life and vivacity. In lines seven and eight “the force” becomes destructive again as in the first stanza. The force that pushed life along becomes the very force that takes away life as it “dries” the stream and turns the speaker’s blood to “wax,” which represents the speaker’s stiff corpse after embalming. As in the first stanza he is unable to communicate his feelings. An attempt to explain the situation to his body would be futile, since it is already lifeless.

In the third stanza the force is replaced by “the hand,” and like the “force” in the previous two stanzas it has the power to control and alter nature.

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
How of my clay is made the hangman’s lime.

The “hand” agitates the normally calm waters of the pool and the generally motionless quicksand, and it is so powerful that it also controls the wind. The third line of this stanza is a double entendre. The speaker can be referring to a ship where the “shroud” is one of the ropes that support a ship’s mast; in this case the “hand’s” power is demonstrated as it controls the ship’s course. Another interpretation of the third line is similar to the third lines in the previous stanzas in which he states his demise; in this case the “shroud” would be the sheet used to wrap a dead body for burial. In the fourth and fifth lines the speaker find it senseless to communicate his feelings with the “hanging man” since they both share the same fate. The speaker’s body, his “clay,” will be in the hangman’s pit, which is doused in “lime” to nullify the smell of rotting corpses.

While the first three stanzas illustrated the abilities of “the force,” the fourth stanza identifies the force as being “time.”

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
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

The denotation of “fountainhead” is an original source, therefore, where life begins, time leeches the fountain head just as age exhausts life. The line can also interpret as the “lips of time” symbolizing the genitals of a female and the “fountain head” as the phallus of a man. The latter interpretation ties in well with the rest of the poem because of its significance in the cycle of life; the speaker is playing his role in reproduction. The next line also leads on to sexual connotations but leans more towards the reoccurring theme of death where “fallen blood” represents a dead person. The speaker brings another life into being through reproduction in line one and in lines two and three he explains that the burden on society will be offset by his death, “fallen blood.” Time is referred to as “her” and the burden on society is represented by “sores.” He is incapable of explaining to the wind how time works because the wind already knows the nature of time. The “weather’s wind” has been to the heavens and the stars and has seen all possible weathers.

And I am dumb to tell the lover’s tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

We’ll post an interpretation for the final lines of this poem with a quote from commenter James Stephen: “This is a tricky refrain and I’m sure it’s interpreted differently. The words “lover’s tomb” could have many implications. In essence though, again, worms act differently to someone alive as they do someone dead (regardless of love – would be my interpretation of the explicit reference to love).” (Read the rest of James’ analysis in the comments below)

Hills Like White Elephants – Literary Analysis

Literary Analysis, Research

The short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, is about a young couple and the polemic issue of abortion. Though the word ‘abortion’ is nowhere in the story, it is doubtlessly understood through Hemingway’s powerful use of two literary elements: setting and symbolism.

From the first paragraph the setting immediately introduces the tense atmosphere that will surround the rest of the story. The story takes place in Spain in the late 1920’s. The setting is described as follows:

The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. […] The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.

The couple is in the middle of making a drastic decision where there are only two choices, two directions, just like the two rail lines that pass by the station. The openness and loneliness around the railroad station imply that there is no way to back out of the problem at hand and that the man and the girl must address it now. The heat turns the scene into a virtual teakettle, boiling and screaming under pressure. The landscape that encompasses the station plays a fundamental role in the conflict of the story through its extensive symbolism.




When the girl sees the long and white hills she says that “they look like white elephants.” As she observes the white hills she foresees elatedly the birth of her baby – something unique like the uncommon white elephant. The color white symbolizes the innocence and purity of her unborn child. She also admires the rest of the scenery:

The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were the fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees..

The fields of grain and trees represent fertility and fruitfulness, which symbolize her current pregnant state and the life in her womb. The Ebro River also represents life, as it germinates the fields. Just as the girl appreciates the panorama and its connection to her unborn child the “shadow of a cloud,” which represents the abortion of the fetus, overcomes her happiness. After an exchange of words with the man she again looks at the scenery, but this time in a different way, as the following sentence illustrates: “They sat down at the table and the girl looked across the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table.” The man is obviously in favor of the abortion, and everything he says is an effort to persuade her into it. As she considers his point of view she looks at the dry side of the valley, which is barren and sterile, symbolizing her body after the abortion. The man and woman continue arguing and stop for a little when she says, “Would you please please please please please please please please stop talking?”

He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.

The American apparently wants this abortion because he wants to keep his current lifestyle. The bags with all the hotel labels on them are symbolic of his vivacious spirit. If the woman goes ahead with the pregnancy, he would have to settle down and raise a family, which would mean forgoing his youthful desires of seeing the world.

The story ends with the couple expecting their train’s arrival in five minutes. There is no resolution and there is no decision stated regarding the abortion. Hemingway’s interweaving of setting and symbolism helps him juice each sentence to provide maximum detail. This story was not only intended for the pleasures of reading, but also though provocation. Hemingway has intentionally left the readers to conclude for themselves what will happen next.

The Age of Empire: 1875-1914

Literary Analysis, Research

The Age of Empire: 1875-1914

The 19th century was the most European century in all history according to Eric Hobsbawm in his book “The Age of Empire”. “The Age of Empire” focuses on historical events from 1875-1914, and explains the events that led the path to the Great War in 1914 by analyzing the sociopolitical environment in Europe. The book concentrates the majority of its attention on “the six ‘powers’ – Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Italy – and the Ottoman Empire […]” (Hobsbawm 23); with a focus on the first three respectively. Hobsbawm explains how the First World War was incited by drastic changes in the world’s sociopolitical conditions and hasty industrialization. Among issues tackled in his book, Hobsbawm speaks about the rise of the democratic institution, political emergence of the working class, and the fervent industrialization that resulted from an armament race.

“After 1870 it became increasingly clear that the democratization of the politics of states was quite inevitable” (Hobsbawm 85). The European powers formally began to adopt socialist parties in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Germany pioneered by forming the “General German Workers’ Association” in 1863 (Roskin 188); In Britain “the new Labour party [was] founded in 1900” (Roskin 33); In France the “French Section of the Workers International” was founded in 1905 (Roskin 147).

In an effort to hold on to political and economic power, the ruling conservative classes that once controlled Europe as monarchies and theocracies took steps to manage impending democratization of their states. “Their major target was the labour and socialist movement which suddenly emerged internationally as a mass phenomenon […]” (Hobsbawm 101). Huge socialist movements threatened the bourgeoisie, so they took steps to soften the brunt of the up-and-coming working class. An example of the upper-class efforts to hold back socialist movements was when “the British Conservative government used the South African War […] to sweep away its [socialist] Liberal opponents in the ‘Khaki election’ of 1900” (Hobsbawm 103). Aside from the war victories of conservative governments, nationalism was used as a tool to slow down the growth of socialist and liberal parties. The French government instituted the Fourteenth of July as a national festival and permanently assigned the extremely patriotic “La Marseillaise” as the national anthem in 1879. The Germans also branded a particularly nationalistic anthem “Deutschland Uber Alles” and even created a new Prusso-German flag in the 1890s. The conservative efforts to downplay these new movements were successful. It was this newly-bred nationalism that led European socialist movements to join “their governments and ruling classes in patriotic union” “when war broke out in 1914” (Hobsbawm 108).

Even though the conservative ruling classes of Europe had some triumphs over the working class, the socialist movement proved to be there to stay. Worker-unions had attained “a legal status and privileges so far-reaching” that employers and the conservatives “did not succeed in reducing or abolishing them until the 1980s” (Hobsbawm 121).

An entire chapter of Hobsbawm’s book is dedicated to “the uncertainty of the bourgeoisie.” This uncertainty was a result of the elimination of classes as an accurate method of separation caused by the rise of the working class in political and social affairs. “The Revolution had abolished classes” in France; and in Britain “classes, not being closed castes, did not exist” (Hobsbawm 170). Monetary power became less and less defining as a mark of higher social status. “The chief indicator of social membership increasingly became, and has remained, formal education” (Hobsbawm 174). Society’s elite attended “public schools” in Britain, “Lycées” in France, and “the classical Gymasien” in Germany (Hobsbawm 174). Britain’s private schools generated an “old boy network that assists graduates later in life” (Roskin 54).

“Peace was the normal and expected framework of European lives” before 1914 (Hobsbawm 303). The six ‘powers’ of Europe were too busy advancing and dealing with internal changes in socio-political conditions to be bothered by the next nation. The only place war seemed inevitable was in the Ottoman Empire, which as far as its history goes, has been in toil due to civil wars. Even Russia, who was constantly at battle, fighting with the “Turks in the 1870s and Japanese in 1904,” as not suspected as a reason for an all-out European war. The idea of a general European war was popularized in the fiction of the time along with commentaries of well-known figures such as Friedrich Engels and Nietzsche. European countries took measures to prevent a “possible war in the 1890s by instituting “The World (Universal) Peace Congresses – […] the Nobel Peace prizes (1897) and the first of the Hague Peace Conferences (1899) […]” (Hobsbawm 304). Tensions of some sort of a war became increasingly imminent from the late 1890s to 1914.

During the period of 1875-1914 armies existed not only to assist in internal and external problems, but more so as a method to instill pride and nationalism. Military personnel were the main attraction of parades and ceremonies; they also served as a rite-of-passage for young men. The military might of a European nation was arguably the major source of national pride, and European countries were ready to take the necessary steps to keep a dignified position amongst its fellow European nations. This created the competitive spirit that pushed Europe’s super-powers into the arms race that would increase tensions between them.

“The arms race began in a modest way in the later 1880s, and accelerated in the new century, particularly in the last years before the war” (Hobsbawm 307). A race of industries amongst the powerful European nations also came to be, mainly between the Germans and British. Under Kaiser Wilhelm II Germany’s industry rapidly came to excel that of Britain’s, which was the world’s industrial leader. In 1889 weapons became the next issue of importance as Wilhelm II of Germany began building an enormous naval fleet to compete with the famous Royal Navy of Britain. The landlocked Britain wisely focused the majority of its efforts and money on the Royal Navy while Germany’s naval fleet equipped with the most advanced gunnery began appearing formidable. Even the increasing military focus in the years preceding 1914 is not enough of a reason for a war of such a great scale that was to come. “[…] what drove Europe into the war was not competitive armament as such, but the international situation which launched powers into it” (Hobsbawm 309).

Allies and enemies began to take form in the few years before 1914. Many were obvious relationships due to historical and contemporary problems. “Germany and France would be on opposite sides, […]” because of the hostile annexation of Alsace-Lorraine (Hobsbawm 312). Bismarck of Germany clearly molded the allegiance between Germany and Austria-Hungary. Given the preceding facts, the “Triple Alliance” was created in 1882 between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The Austrian takeover of Bosnia from Russia, clearly labeled these two nations as enemies. This joined France and Russia as allies in 1891, as nations with common enemies. The final addition to these two blocs was Britain, when it came over to the anti-German camp. The alliance of Britain, France and Russia, became known as the “Triple Entente” which was completed and made official in 1907.

The alliances formed before The Great War were roughly brought together simply through associations. The Germans had no quarrel with the Russians and Austria-Hungary had no problems with France. “(Nobody worried much about the tergiversations of Italy, which was only a ‘great power’ by international courtesy)” (Hobsbawm 314). The Ottoman Empire owed allegiance to the German side because of “German economic and strategic penetration of the Ottoman Empire […]” (Hobsbawm 317). The British fear of being removed as the “force to be reckoned with” by an over-confident and zealous Germany was a main reason for its choice of sides. Though Britain did not have any overwhelming reason for “friction with Prussia – and the same seemed to be true of the super-Prussia now known as the German Empire” (Hobsbawm 314). As a matter of fact, given its history with France, Britain has a more justifiable enemy with the French.

World War I was a catastrophic event that baffled everyone involved. Governments were perplexed by there own affiliations and the reasons behind the war appeared even more ridiculous. As stated by Hobsbawm “In 1914 the peoples of Europe, for however brief a moment, went lightheartedly to slaughter and to be slaughtered. After the First World War they never did so again.”


Works Cited

Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Empire. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

Roskin, Michael G. Countries and Concepts. 8th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall: 2004