Symbol Analysis
"The Force…" isn't all gloom and doom. Remember, it has a positive side. There's plenty of vibrant imagery that reflects youthful vitality throughout the poem. Sure, things usually take a turn for the worse by the end of the stanza (lots of withering and death, plus a worm), but let's focus on the positive for now, shall we?
- Lines 1-2: The poem kicks off with lots of active, youthful imagery. We've got the color green right there in the first line, and there's also a flower. The color green is often associated with youth and vitality and flowers are almost always positive images of fertility and beauty. In line 2, the speaker refers to his youth with a metaphor: "my green age." By describing his youth in the same terms (with the same color) as the flower's stem, there is a strong connection established between man and nature. This connection is something that Thomas builds on throughout the poem.
- Lines 6-7, 10, 11, 16: Water imagery runs (get it?) through the entire poem. Water is almost universally considered a symbol of fertility and life. The poem has images of rocky rivers, streams, springs, pools, and fountains. Is that enough water for you? Thomas uses the watery imagery in two distinct ways. First, he uses it to represent vitality and life: "water through the rocks," "water in the pool." Then, he uses it to show how the force-time destroys vitality and life: "dries the […] streams," "leech […] the fountain head." Thomas definitely gets a lot of symbolic and imagistic bang for his poetry buck out of water in this one.