“The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” by Dylan Thomas describes an internal conflict he has with his body as he struggles to grasp how to describe himself as nature. This poem is composed of vivid comparisons between parts of himself and free-flowing aspects of nature in the world that surrounds him. It is a romantic piece that follows a consistent slant rhyme, creating a sense of unity among the diverse moods each stanza embodies. For instance, in the first stanza:
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.
The endings of lines 1,3, and 5, “flower”, “destroyer” and “fever” demonstrate a rhyme scheme that persists through much of the poem. In addition to a rhyme scheme, Thomas creates beautiful imagery with his comparisons that are not quite metaphors. His use of nature-related diction like “green fuse drives the flower”, “roots of trees”, “crooked rose”, and “mouthing streams” paints a picture of him as one with nature and the wilderness. I notice that all of his descriptions depict nature as flowing, unimpeded, and free. By correlating his “green” youth to a “crooked rose bent by the same wintry fever”, he expresses that though he is young, his body is one with nature itself, and it seems almost like his recognition of youth cannot occur without that. He craves to be a part of the immortal and everlasting parts of the Earth which make up nature. Thomas displays how he wants to become wise, and to experience how time as ticked for so long, hinting at immortality and the heavenly aspect of living: “and I am dumb to tell a weather’s wind/How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.”
Despite all of these bold comparisons, Thomas repeats the line “and I am dumb to tell”. I interpret this repetition as a self-reminder that he doesn’t feel the power to say that he is truly what he wants to be. In “The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower”, there is an underlying theme: a sense of struggle with identity. With Thomas, this is about being one with nature, yet his poem has an inherent futility: there is a muteness he cries against: ‘And yet I am dumb,”… . He understands that he is still an individual, and set apart, despite the similar characteristics he shares with nature.
In a similar fashion, Adrienne Rich discusses her ongoing journey of self-discovery, finding herself within parts of the vast world around her. Of course, Rich lives on to be much older than Thomas, who died at 39, so the general feeling of their two poems is very different. Thomas’ “The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” emits a youthful, fresh, almost inexperienced energy, while Rich’s “Orion” is much more matured and developed, even though there is still some naiveté in her poem as well.
In “Orion”, she composes a narrative that spans most of her life, centering around her relationship with the constellation Orion, and how she relies on him as a constant in her life. Throughout the narrative, she consistently personifies Orion as her brave hero, portraying him as a majestic warrior: “you were my genius, you/my cast-iron Viking, my helmed/lion-heart king in prison.” Rich almost idolizes Orion as she begins to develop a personal relationship with the ever-burning constellation. The way she creates the narrative makes it seem like she is enkindling a special bond or understanding between her and the stars. In particular, she has a deep connection with the outdoors as a whole, especially the night sky:
as I throw back my head to take you in
an old transfusion happens again:
divine astronomy is nothing to it.
Indoors I bruise and blunder
break faith, leave ill enough
alone, a dead child born in the dark.
Night cracks up over the chimney,
pieces of time, frozen geodes
come showering down in the grate
When embracing the outdoors, she feels liberated, free, and calm. However, when she enters her home and exits outside to come indoors, she experiences a feeling of being trapped and unfaithful, almost like she is betraying the nature that she loves. Another part of this stanza that stands out is her description of pieces of time. Stars are timeless, and perhaps she is also looking back at past memories and experiences or dreaming about the stars at night. At night, “frozen geodes/come showering down” into her home. Even though she is indoors, she desires the beauty of the stars to come down the chimney. But do they?
As she grows older, Orion continues to stare down, but now from a “simplified west”. Maybe she is struggling or experiencing hardships, and she imagines that when her Viking Orion was staring, life was simpler. This sense of struggle is enforced with the next stanza:
A man reaches behind my eyes
and finds them empty
a woman’s head turns away
from my head in the mirror
children are dying my death
and eating crumbs of my life.
The mood of this stanza shifts dramatically to a much more negative, bleak outlook on life focused on the emptiness of her home life and the internal conflicts she feels. From Rich’s real life, I know that like in “The Force”, she was also struggling with the concept of identity, and for her it was sexuality, motherhood, and being Jewish as well as Protestant. Maybe she is contemplating who she truly is, but as she stares back at Orion, her mood changes immediately:
Pity is not your forte.
Calmly you ache up there
pinned aloft in your crow’s nest,
my speechless pirate!
Rich knows that she can’t feel sorry for herself when she stares at the stars. Despite all these years, Orion still burns strong, meaning she can and should as well. The poem ends with her gazing at Orion as if she were a constellation; she throws a cold spear at the sky, but knows it can’t hurt him.
It seems like this poem was written as a reminder that no matter what occurs in life, she (and we) always has Orion in the sky, burning bright to reassure her as a strong warrior fighting by her side. Orion helps build her character and will forever be a part of her life.
Rich shows the reader her internal desire to model her life after something eternal, yet fails to achieve a sense of wholeness as her feelings of loneliness and emptiness persist. In comparison, Thomas based his identity on driving nature, a full, powerful, yet youthful and dynamic thing that revels in itself. This recurring reflex is mirrored in Rich’s craving to escape her life. Both the starlight shattering into her home and the force that drives the stream and his blood propel them deeper into the perennial and immortal identity that they mold their mortal lives to.