Fern Hill Youth Quotes

So, the speaker doesn't come out and say, "I was young, once." But, he chooses to describe himself as "prince" and says, "once below a time." The figurative language here immediately sets the scene—he's young, he feels invincible, and he's got it made… for now.

Again, the speaker doesn't use the word youth, but by now we know he's describing what his youth felt like on the farm. It was a "golden" time and again, he seems to be in charge, as if youth has anointed him dominion over the landscape.

In stanza three, the speaker continues to praise youth. The "it" we think is youth, and the speaker leaves no doubt that he thought it was "lovely." Plus, the speaker's using nature imagery to describe youth, as if it were something as natural as the setting where he finds himself. This seems important because it expresses the speaker's belief that youth was something that shaped and was shaped by the landscape around him. Youth tied him to the setting and the speaker loved every inch of it.