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Childhood Among the Ferns

I sat one sprinkling day upon the lea,
Where tall-stemmed ferns spread out luxuriantly,
And nothing but those tall ferns sheltered me.

The rain gained strength, and damped each lopping frond,
Ran down their stalks beside me and beyond,
And shaped slow-creeping rivulets as I conned,

With pride, my spray-roofed house. And though anon
Some drops pierced its green rafters, I sat on,
Making pretence I was not rained upon.

The sun then burst, and brought forth a sweet breath
From the limp ferns as they dried underneath:
I said: ‘I could live on here thus till death;’

And queried in the green rays as I sate:
‘Why should I have to grow to man's estate,
And this afar-noised World perambulate?’

Glossary:
lea - grassland, pasture
anon - soon
conned - study carefully, commit to memory (older meaning)

This autobiographical poem was first published in the "Daily Telegraph" on March 29, 1928. It was later published in "Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres" on October 2, 1928 (after Hardy's death on January 11, 1928).

In the period 1925-1928, Hardy was working on notes for "The Early Life" and "The Later Years" which he was writing with his second wife, Florence. Many of the poems in "Winter Words" seem based on events recalled to him in diaries and notebooks consulted for the biography, including "Childhood Among the Ferns." He was under the age of eight when he spent some time among the large ferns with the sunlight filtered through a straw hat.

I love the image of an eight-year-old boy sheltering underneath ferns in a rainstorm! THey must have been very very large ferns.

This poem makes me nostalgic for my own childhood. I have a couple powerful memories from when I was seven or eight. It's summertime (I know because I didn't have school), and I remember laying for hours in my backyard staring up at a blue sky with wispy clouds. The weather is different in Hardy's poem, but the feeling of being one with nature, and being part of a larger world is the same.

Thank you for this one Connie!

Thank you so much for this, Connie. I hadn't come across this before and not only do I love Thomas Hardy, but I'm also an absolute fern fanatic so I'm delighted to have been introduced to this poem! I have about 40 different varieties in pots in my garden. I love the idea of a "spray-roofed house" made of ferns! I spend ages communing with my ferns as I go through the slow process of watering every pot each week, and I love to see their elegant fronds slowly unfurling and the surprising amount of variety in their colour and shape.

Something like a dryopteris filix-mas (male fern) is common all over Britain and they can grow over a metre tall, so a small boy could easily lie underneath them. Pteridium aquilinum (bracken) is probably the most familiar British fern and they can reach up to 2 metres in height and spread very quickly to cover a large area. Bracken is maybe a bit more "spray-roofed" and "tall-stemmed" so perhaps it was this type of fern in the poem.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree...

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/114462/...

Thanks for the pictures, Lorna!

Lorna wrote: "Thank you so much for this, Connie. I hadn't come across this before and not only do I love Thomas Hardy, but I'm also an absolute fern fanatic so I'm delighted to have been introduced to this poem..."

Your garden must be gorgeous with so many varieties of ferns, Lorna. Thank you for sending on the photos. It must have seemed quite magical to the young Thomas Hardy to be resting under the shelter of ferns.

Bridget wrote: "I love the image of an eight-year-old boy sheltering underneath ferns in a rainstorm! THey must have been very very large ferns.

This poem makes me nostalgic for my own childhood. I have a couple ..."

I remember having a fascination with the big, puffy cumulus clouds and imagining what their shapes portrayed when I was young. Every child should have some idle time just to sit in a natural setting and watch the world go by. Thanks for sharing your memories, Bridget.

I absolutely love this nostalgic poem; thank you Connie!

I also find I have a smile on my face, reading everyone's lovely contributions, thank you.

My first thought was Abbotsbury (yes I know, it usually is! 😆) But in this case I was thinking of the subtropical gardens. Because that part of the coast has its own mild weather system, exotic plants grow there which you don't see in any other part of Britain. Often walking through I will say to Chris that I feel like Gulliver, or a tiny elf, with the huge ferns, palm trees and immense cabbage-like leaves soaring above me and shading us from the sun, Hardy knew of Abbotsbury - he called it Abbotsea.

But Connie tells us "He was under the age of eight when he spent some time among the large ferns" and at this age he will have been in the family cottage at Higher Bockhampton, (a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford, Dorset.) Higher Bockhampton was - and is - surrounded by bracken‑covered heaths, copses, and small clearings.

The heathland and ferny clearings around his home is where the small child sat in a patch of ferns during a rain shower, pretending it was a house. Just lovely! 🥰 Hardy often included nostalgic aspects in his works, but I don't remember quite such a specific and personal memory before.

Linking now.

Bionic Jean wrote: "I absolutely love this nostalgic poem; thank you Connie!

I also find I have a smile on my face, reading everyone's lovely contributions, thank you.

My first thought was Abbotsbury (yes I know, it..."

The scenery in that part of England sounds so lovely, Jean. I always enjoy it when you give us such great descriptions of Hardy's world.

In 1994 there was a TV miniseries of The Return of the Native with Catherine Zeta Jones. It's on DVD in the US (I don't have it as it's so expensive here for some reason). Even though I only saw it once, I do remember the slow panning of the camera right across the Bride Valley, in the middle of summer right at the beginning - to show the lush landscape. It's the fictional Egdon Heath. I believe some was filmed on Exmoor too, which is very similar.

So members who have that series can see exactly how beautiful it is 🥰

I'm adding this to my ever growing list of miniseries that I must watch!!

Bridget, I watched it years ago (the library where I work had it in our now defunct DVD collection). Alas, my memory of the scenery isn't very sharp; but I's still recommend it on the grounds of its overall quality. It's quite faithful to the book, too.