Clown In The Moon by Dylan Thomas

Clown In The Moon by Dylan Thomas

My tears are like the quiet drift
Of petals from some magic rose;
And all my grief flows from the rift
Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.

Analysis:

The first stanza of this poem has an “ABAB” rhyme scheme and the second stanza has no rhyme scheme at all. The writer also puts a simile at the beginning of the poem where it says: “My tears are like quiet drift.” The meaning of the simile in my opinion is that the tears of the narrator are subtle and gentle. “If petals from some magic rose” this passage is referring to rareness of the character tearing up. The narrator seems depressed and isolated in this poem. The narrator for this poem is a clown stuck on a moon who feels lonely and cannot make his way back home to earth. Another simile used in this poem is at the end of the piece, where it says: “So tremulously like a dream.” The quote is describing the fear that the clown has and is relating this fear to a dream. It is an interesting pattern that the poem begins with a simile and ends with a simile, a parallel structure of sorts.

This poem reminds of a novel I read a couple years ago in French class, “Le Petit Prince.” Both the clown and petit prince relate to each other, they are lost and isolated from people.

The rhyme scheme for this poem works really well, in conveying the message of the piece. The only issue with this poem is the short length. Possibly, adding more to the poem would make the poem seem more interesting to readers.