Discussion Questions:
2850:

• Explain: "What a poem means is its imagery, the way its words are put into relation to one another" (2850).
• Explain the significance of the oral tradition in rural communities.

• To what "force" is Thomas referring?
• Explain: "Of my clay is made the hangman's lime" (15).
• Explain the final two lines.

• Describe the use of imagery in this poem.

• Explain: "Once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves" (7).
• Explain: "And the sabbath rang slowly / In the pebbles of the holy streams" (17-18).
• Explain: "All the sun long" (19), "All moon long" (25).
• Explain: "The owls were bearing the farm away" (24).

• Explain lines 42-45.
• Explain: "Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea" (53-54).

• What poem form is being employed here?  Explain.
• Explain the poem's message.
• How do form and content relate? Explain.