Thomas had started writing Fern Hill in New Quay, Cardiganshire, where he lived from 4 September 1944 to July 1945.
[9] Thomas wrote about Fernhill (calling it Gorsehill) in his short story, The Peaches, in which he describes it as a ramshackle house of hollow fear.
[13] Fernhill, said an official survey,[14] had an outside earth closet, water was carried in from a well in the farmyard, washing oneself was done in the kitchen, whilst meals were cooked on an open fire.
[17] The poem starts as a straightforward evocation of his childhood visits to his Aunt Annie's farm: In the middle section, the idyllic scene is expanded upon, reinforced by the lilting rhythm of the poem, the dreamlike, pastoral metaphors and allusion to Eden.
Thomas was very conscious of the effect of spoken or intoned verse and explored the potentialities of sound and rhythm, in a manner reminiscent of Gerard Manley Hopkins.