Fern Hill

The adult speaker recalls the joy and freedom of his childhood on the farm. He experienced his boyhood as an unending happiness in which he and nature fitted perfectly together; there was not a cloud on his horizon. This is almost literally true, since he writes, “All the sun long it was running, it was lovely” (Line 19); the first cloud does not appear until Line 38, and even then, the boy’s happiness still runs on like an endless river. It is as if he is living in an eternal paradise, like the Garden of Eden, unaware of time, change, and death. Moreover, this child is an autonomous being: There are no parents in sight, there is no school to attend, no adult to tell him what he can or cannot do. It is just him and the sights and sounds—the imagery is entirely visual and aural—of the natural world. These include calves, foxes, horses, and birds—owls, nightjars, pheasants, a rooster, swallows—as well as the sun, moon, and stars, hills and streams, hay ricks, and apple trees.

In the fond memory of the adult, this boy was about as free as any child could ever have been, and he can desire no more.