19 pages • 38 minutes read
Dylan ThomasI See the Boys of Summer
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1939A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Darkness and Ruin
Darkness and ruin appear throughout “I see the boys of summer” and enhance Thomas’s commentary on man’s destructive capabilities. Within the first two stanzas, the boys “freeze the soils;” (3), “drown the cargoed apples” (6), and “Sour the boiling honey;” (8). In the first section, despite the light of summer, the boys are in ruin, and will become men of nothing. In the second section, the perspective shifts to the boys, and they further identify with darkness: “We are the dark derniers let us summon / Death from a summer woman,” (31-32). The boys are repeatedly paired with darkness and death, imbuing them with negative qualities and destructive abilities.
By the end of the poem, the boys continue to embody darkness and ruin: “I see you boys of summer in your ruin. / Man in his maggot’s barren.” (49-50). As men, they will find themselves in a maggot barren, alluding to their deaths and their rotting bodies in the ground. With darkness and ruin, Thomas imbues boys with destruction and shows they are destined for ruin and death.
Summer and Light
Summer and light provide contrasting images for the darker ones of the poem and emphasize how life is connected to death. The boys bring darkness, but they are called the summer boys. Their title as summer boys juxtaposes their destructive actions. They are living, breathing parts of life, despite their destructive nature. The boys carry light within them: “Of love and light bursts in their throats. / O see the pulse of summer in the ice.” (23-24). Summer and light come to be associated with love, and these joyful images exist within the destructive boys. Using summer and light, Thomas imbeds the boys with creation and love, showing that life and death are always working in tandem.
The light that exists outside the boys is likewise beneficial. In the third stanza, light bares down on mothers and their children: “As sunlight paints the shelling of their heads.” (18). The sunlight paints their heads, creating a soothing and peaceful image. Thomas employs the light of the natural world to craft idyllic scenes, showing that nature, and existence, holds tender moments of wonder and beauty.
Aging and Seasons
Thomas utilizes the aging of the boys and the changing of seasons to emphasize the passage of time and the cyclical nature of life. The boys begin the poem in their youth, but their future as men is foreshadowed in the fourth stanza: “I see that from these boys shall men of nothing” (19). Mentioning the boys’ future propels the poem, creating a sense of momentum and bringing awareness that the summer boys will not stay that way forever.
The seasons change too. The first section describes the summer boys surrounded by bounty, but the second section announces the arrival of winter in the fifth stanza: “There, in his night, the black-tongued bells / The sleepy man of winter pulls” (29-30). The boys will not stay young, and summer will not remain forever, eventually leading into winter. But winter changes too, turning into spring. The eighth stanza paints an image of the boys as the seasons change yet again: “In spring we cross our foreheads with the holly, / Heigh ho the blood and berry,” (43-44). Using the changing of the seasons, Thomas emphasizes that life moves in a circle, an ebb and flow of heat and cold, life and death.
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