Dylan Thomas was a Surrealist poet of the Modernist era. “Poem in October” is a lyrical song which deals with the celebration of the birthday in the musings of the nature. His writings are Surrealistic in its aspects as he resists the plausible consciousness of the urban life and find meaning in the unconscious flow of the nature. The poem deals with these aspects of writing and deals with the themes of autobiography , nature , celebration , memories and experiences and self development.
Thomas’s writings shows the major influences of Surrealist movement. It reacted against the First World war and the human conscious flow of rationality and plausibility and alludes to the ethereal realm of imagination. The clear depiction of the speaker’s waking up to the sound of “harbour and neighbour wood” and to the “mussel pooled and heron” implies the triggering of unconscious mind. He further highlights the resistivity towards the urban human consciousness and will “set foot” to the sound and musings of “water praying and call of seagull and rook”. The poet represents the ethereal realm of dream where the “water-Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name” which is “Above the farms and the white horses”. He further adds that as the speaker passed “the border” and “the gates” where the “town closed” due to “town awoke” shows the clear essence of surrealistic writings in resistance against human logical view of the world.
As a modernist poet, the poet used symbolism in the poem. The symbol of “border” becomes the realm of conscious mind and the “gates’ symbolizes the connection between conscious and unconscious mind. The “town awoke” becomes a symbol of urban consciousness which Surrealist poets repressed and resist against it. The literary refrain of “Away but the weather turned around” symbolizes the returning flow of human consciousness. The image of “streamed again” is the symbol of surrealist automatism technique to depict the free flow of human unconsciousness.
The poem depicts the wild ethereal imagination unconscious mind where the speaker is able to perceive the beauty and scenery of nature. The speaker is able to find joy and peace in the state of “springful of larks” to the “bushes brimming with whistling” and the season of “October” with its fruit of “summery” on the “Hill’s shoulders”. he is “fond of climates and sweet singers” who wanders and sings to him which gives him delight which is all in the “wood faraway under me”. The alliterative lines clearly heightens the dephh of Surrealistic imagination in the poem. He further escalates these wild imagination where he is able to see “beyond the border” of “pale rain” to the “sea wet church” and of the “spring and summer ” blooming in “tall tales” in “full cloud” suggests his joy to celebrate his birthday but the fragments of dream instill as the “weather turned around’.
The poet uses a technique of automatism writing which helps to delve deeper into the unconscious mind bringing forth the memories and experiences of the speaker. Critically, the technique of automatism is to emphasize the smooth flow of unconscious mind as the speaker’s mind fragmented amid the imagination. It is clearly depicted in the poem where the fragmented flows to the “blithe country” and the new imagination of “altered sky” pours down to “Streamed again” to “summer with apples” and “Peers and red currants” and as it was “turning” to new form of imagination, the speaker evokes the memories and experiences and so his own self-reflection of a child who in his morning used to walk down with his mother who will tell him the “parables” and the “legends of the green chapels”. The technique is taken into a higher order where he is able to feel within him and imbue it as one as “his heart moved in mine”. He saw his own childhood who saw the “woods and the river and the sea” which spoke the “truth” to the “trees and the stones and the fish in the tide”. The psychoanalytical view can be seen as the memories and experiences had been attached to these images in nature as it becomes a “mystery” which is still ‘sang alive” in the “water and singing birds”.
Lastly, the self-development is evoked in the poem where the reminiscing of memories and experiences brings a subtle emotional flaws in the speaker yet comprehends the nature of innocency of childhood. He expresses his guilt over the urban consciousness where “the town below lay leaved with October blood” could signify the destruction of innocency or materialistic world but the speaker highlights that his “truth” which exists in his core heart of memories and experiences away from the logical consciousness “Still be sung” on the “high hill in a year’s turning”.
Critical Analysis of Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that Goodnight – https://getsetnotes.com/critical-analysis-of-dylan-thomas-do-not-go-gentle-into-that-goodnight/
Click Here to Know About the Critical Analysis of Dylan Thomas Fern Hill Poem – https://getsetnotes.com/critical-analysis-of-dylan-thomas-fern-hill-poem/
