The
opening of Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milkwood” is thick with description. The
description is centred around the village and the dark night. The village of “Under Milkwood” is a rural place with natural features – boasting the woods and the sea. The
black night is described around these natural features.
Dylan Thomas has been clever about how he has described the night. In the opening of the
poem as we have learnt that the village is religious and it is natural. We have discovered this from these phrases “bible black, sloe black, slow, black, crow black, fishing boat bobbing sea”.
By doing this Dylan Thomas has made me
feel welcomed to the poem because it has a warm, friendly, calm and peaceful atmosphere to it. This is an unusual remark form a poem about the night but it does feel very welcoming but subtle, whereas you would think about it being dangerous like most stories and poems in the night-time (this is when they are set).
The effect of repetition, description and alliteration has proven to make a huge effect toward the poem. I think that if Dylan Thomas had not have included these features of repetition, description and alliteration the poem would be quite dull and simple with no sense of welcoming you to the poem and it would not feel very comforting or warm.
Dylan Thomas uses these effects throughout the opening and I think that the two skills that work best together are
repetition and description: “ silent black and the bandaged night”. In this quote Dylan has described the black night by cleverly using words like “bandaged” to give the overwhelming effect of the night. In the quotation: “sloeblack, slow, black, crow black, fishing boat bobbing sea” Dylan Thomas uses extensive repetition of the word “black” which is featured right throughout the opening.
In the second paragraph of the opening we have learnt that this village occupies most of a villages’ needs by person, “the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen, and the fancy woman, the pensioners, the drunkard, the dressmaker (etc.).” WE also learn that the village age group is varied and we are told that everyone is asleep: “Hush, the babies are sleeping… the pensioners”. This is one reason that the opening feels so welcoming and realistic.
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