Analysis sometimes the sky's too bright

Sometimes the sky’s too bright.
- Dylan Thomas

Thomas describes the thoughts and feelings of falling out of a broken relationship with metaphors like the profusion of images and things. The poem has also explored the perspectives of both parties in the failed relationship. It also uncovers the facades of the “ over fruitful smiles” as it describes the genuine feelings underneath.

“ Sometimes the sky’s too bright” denotes that submission is the only thing left to do after a broken relationship. The metaphor of the sky and the wildlife of it describes the love the persona is in. “ Sometimes the sky’s too bright,” shows how sometimes love can be too intense and too glaring as described by “ bright”. Also, “ or has too many clouds or birds” illustrates the obstructions in the sky, blocking the view where birds and clouds are the metaphors of the different obstacles and blurring a relationship can have. The persona is using these metaphors to paint a visual image of how a relationship is like the sky, unpredictable. When it’s clear, the future is vivid and distinct, however, clouds and bird may suddenly infest the view, blurring the road ahead of the relationship. The poem continues by “ And far away’s too sharp a sun to nourish thinking of him. “ In my opinion, this refers to how the persona thinks that the imminent future of her relationship is too clear for her to try and sculpt her future as described by “ nourish” where it is used to describe the upbringing of the relationship she wants. As the first four lines proceeds together, the persona is trying to say that the relationship may sometimes be too precise and intense, it may also be too unclear and blurred, thus, she can not sculpt the perfect future of her love life, making her submit to reality. Through line 5 to line 15, the persona is expressing that she has no ability to change the way she still feels or to turn away from it, thus she makes the selfish decision to wish her muse falls into the same depression the persona is in too. In line 9, ‘weightless’ is being used to describe the lips followed by the inability to ‘lift’ it in line 11. This intensifies the persona’s feeling of unworthy and defeat as she is not able to lift something that is weightless, which shows how useless the persona thinks of herself. In line 12, a juxtaposition ‘creature’ and ‘angel’ is being used to differentiate heart from mind. In my opinion, the persona tries to degrade her muse in attempt to get over him by calling him a creature who hurts her. She is able to change how she thinks of her muse however, she is unable to change how she sees him, evidently when ‘angel’ is used. Thus, the persona expresses her desire for her muse to also feel the way she does. When she isn’t able to ‘lift the weightless lips’ , she wishes him to also ‘go down in misery’. Line 16 narrates “ No stopping.” This caesura shows determination in the persona to just submit to the facts. However, a hint of reluctance is observed as “ No stopping.” instead of ‘stop.’. The lengthening of the statement has a soft and submissive sound. Through this poem, the persona ventured from her personal feelings towards her muse, continued by accepting that she cannot change and thus hopes for her muse to fall in misery with her, and realizes eventually that the only thing one can do when falling out of love is to submit, which is the purpose of the poem.

The tone of the poem is emotional and sentimental. The metaphors used are of nature, like the sky, clouds and birds. These visual imageries has a relaxing feeling, where there is no intense or dramatic emotion detected, making the poem very heartfelt and sincere. Also the diction of the poem showed no anger or strong feelings due to the lack of loaded words. The frequent use of metaphors indicated that the poem had many connotations showing the sentimental value of each metaphor. This gives the poem a very deep meaning that goes beyond the literal meaning of the words. Although the visual imager used does not show signs of dramatic emotion, the language use does. It is seen where “ My horrid images for me” is used. ‘Horrid’ being used as an intensifier for ‘bad’ shows the discontent of the persona towards what lies before his eyes. It is filled with her distasteful emotions, proving that the poem is in fact emotional. Similarly, ‘ misery’, ‘burns’ and ‘tear’ are all loaded words used throughout the poem to intensify the adjectives used to describe the persona’s emotions. The use of such loaded words gives us an idea on the extent of the specific emotion. The language use in the poem is therefore emotional and impactful, yet not flamboyant. Finally, the lack of alliteration and rhyming schemes suggests that the persona did not have smooth thoughts and emotions. Thus, the tone of the poem is not uniform, but generally similar throughout. It is seen in line 7-15 that there is a hint of plead and sorrow in the persona’s tone, where she pleads for the hurt to be even. However, through line 16 to 19, the tones changed from sorrow and plead to determination and succumb, where she accepts reality and is focused on moving on. Henceforth, it can be seen that the poem is flooded with emotion and slightly differs as the poem progresses.

There is a free structure to this poem where no fixed structure is being used to narrate the different emotions observed. However, there is still a progression as the poem continues form line to line, which gives the poem a narrated structure. The first 4 lines is used to describe how unpredictable a relationship can get. The next 4 lines is used to show how the persona has no ability to turn away from the hurt she feels. Followed by the next 7 lines which is when the persona tries an alternative which is hoping her partner feels pain to make her feel better. Line 16-19 then clearly shows the persona’s decision to move on and her determination in that decision. Starting the next stanza is a change in perspective, from the female’s to the male’s where the first 5 lines shows the hurt he feels despite it being his actions, “ I tear her breast…flowing from her, but mine.’ The next 4 lines describes the persona’s inability to comprehend his own actions, followed by the last 2 line when he expresses that he does not ache although he feels pain which means that he cannot undo anything thus, no point aching. Henceforth, the free structure shows that relationships are not fixed, that they are always surprising. Also, the different number of lines used to describe each phase differs, as there is no telling how long each phase will last. Thus, although ‘ Sometimes the sky’s too bright ‘ does not have a fixed stannic structure, it has a structure within its content to create an imagery of the different phases of emotions felt by the persona.

In conclusion, the title ‘ Sometimes the sky’s too bright’ prepares the reader to expect a poem on the bad side of being too positive, which is congruent to the poem itself, where sometimes a relationship that is too precise and intense and lead the couple down a slippery slope.