The poet is in complete harmony with nature. He uses vivid, reverent imagery to ally himself with the natural world. The birds are calling, the gardens are blooming and the waves of the ocean rise high as if in honour and worship of their creator. He ascends both literally and metaphorically from the seaside morning of his youth, to the mid-day mountains of his adult life. He looks down at the town and marvels that the castle and the church, which dominate the town, look so small and insignificant from his elevated perspective. The church is likened to a tiny snail with feelers and the castle towers are brown owls in the sunlight. The poem appeals to the senses of both sight and hearing. We visualise the sleeping town and the surrounding farmland in the first 3 stanzas. We hear "the birds of the winged trees flying my name" and the "knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall". The "pale rain" and "wind blowing cold" paint a dismal picture of an autumn morning in wales. In contrast the "apples, pears and red currants" depict the wonder of a morning in summer. Thomas uses religious imagery to convey his sense of awe and wonderment. The heron is priestly and authoritative; the water is "praying"; and the boy walks with his mother "through parables of sunlight and the legends of green chapels". As he climbs the path up the hill, he sees himself on his way to heaven. The changeable weather allows the poet to acknowledge that, while there is a future death contained in the present, there is a youthful past as well. The seasons blur as the poet contemplates both his past and the present. "summertime of the dead" refers to his childhood which is now lost to him and the burning sun reminds him that life cannot be reversed. The "october blood" of the trees represents the fact that he is now entering the "autumn" of his life.