Clown in the Moon

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.

 

This is probably the most confusing poem I have ever read, but  I think I understand what Thomas is saying.  First of all, I think that the title of the poem, clown in the moon, is actually the speaker of the poem.  This would make sense on a literal level.  His tears are the rain that fall in a “quiet drift” and there are, “unremembered skies and snows” instead of unremembered years.  Also, he says, “if I touched the earth.”  This must mean on a literal level that he has not touched the earth.  Therefore, it is a reasonable arguement to say that the speaker of the poem is the clown in the moon.  So why did Thomas pick a clown in the moon as the speaker of the poem?  A clown is often associated with children and wheres a mask that always has a smile upon it yet this clown is not happy.  The clown in the moon is crying.  This must mean that he is masking his true feelings from the world.  He claims that the reason for his “grief” is “unremembered skies and snows.”  This must mean to the moon unremembered years.  I take this as years of his life that he has blocked out from his memory.  He doesn’t remember these years because he does not want to remember them.  They were a time of sorrow.  The clown associates these times with childhood so I assume that the speaker was either abused or neglected as a child. 

The next stanza is quite interesting.  He says that if he touches the earth it would crumble.  I think there is a connection being made to King Midas here.  Everything King Midas touched turned to gold as the story goes.  He therefore could not love because he could not hug or kiss his wife and children.  Since he is the moon he is too far away to actually touch humanity.  He is unable to love as King Midas for what he touches will crumble.  This history of neglect or abuse must have contributed to this feeling of being unable to love.  So I think that this poem is about a man or woman who has grown up trying to forget and also trying to hide from others their past history of abuse.  Also, this past history of abuse has made them an outsider who is unable to love as a result. 

I chose this poem because it was just so well put together in my opinion.  It describes the state of mind of an abuse victom so perfectly.  It describes how they feel by using very abstract almost dream-like ideas.  This is interesting to me because the speaker describes how they feel as “a dream.”  Also, we don’t usually remember much of our childhood.  It is almost like a blur so it is a little like a dream in itself.  Suppresed memories only add to this dream-like state.  So the poem is written very appropriately for this reason.