Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas?

Can someone help me understand these lines from the poem?



"And the sabbath rang slowly / In the pebbles of the holy streams"



"the spellbound horses walking warm / Out of the whinnying green stable"



I have to figure out what these tell about his feelings and ideas. Thank you.

Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas?
These lines need to be taken in the context of the poem. First, "and the sabbath..." follows the lines:

"And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves

Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,"

So, "and the sabbath rang slowly..." line continues the image of a pastoral village where the church bells are rung to call people to prayer...and in a village where time passes slowly, the "sabbath", Sunday, "rang slowly", meaning "unrushed", and "in the pebbles of the holy streams" means that the sound travelled everywhere and made the pebbles themselves ring in resonance and the "holy stream" at once refers to both a stream "untarnished" and pure, as well as the "stream" of church-goers who walked to church...and who, like pebbles, were both numerous and part of the stream.



The next line, "the spellbound horses..."is part of the following lines:

"So it must have been after the birth of the simple light

In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm

Out of the whinnying green stable

On to the fields of praise."



These lines refer to a new beginning, a new awakening perhaps of Spring (birth of the simple light) where "in the first, spinning place", meaning perhaps the coral, the "spellbound horses", new, inexperienced and guided by their masters, "walking warm", which their tenders to when taking them out of the stable and before returning them there, "out of the whinning green stable", an image of a new stable where high spirited horses dwell", then "onto the fields of praise", which represents either the fields of the fox hunt or the parade ground.



Thomas creates images that show innocence and youth in a pastoral age, where things are continuously new and yet there is a subtle constancy of nature that intertwines everything together...until the end of the poem where he shows us that he is remembering a youth now past as he says,

"Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,

Time held me green and dying

Though I sang in my chains like the sea."

In other words, he remained young in how he saw the world until time had taken his youth and most of his life, though he tried to live as youthfully as he could for as long as he could.



hope this helps