The poem begins with a simple recollection of his boyhood trips to his Aunt Annie's farm: By the conclusion, the poet's elder voice has taken over, lamenting his lost youth with echoes of the beginning: "Oh, as I was young and easy at the mercy of his means, Time held me green and dying." The last line has given the poem its title. Here is how Dylan Thomas describes his first encounter with alcohol: "I had discovered whiskey, which was then considered a drink for farmers. I found it in my father's cupboard. It made me feel better when I was unhappy or sick. I now understand that whiskey is an alcoholic beverage. At the time, however, I saw only that it made me feel good when I was unhappy or sick. I drank a lot of it. I still remember my father coming upstairs after hearing me drinking whiskey. 'That's not nice,' he said. 'Stop it.' " It is this discovery that holds Thomas green and dying even today. For anyone who has ever felt young and invincible, time has a way of making us aware of our mortality. When we lose that feeling, we know that we are going to die. And when we admit this truth about ourselves, we become old and dying. Thomas came to realize this reality too late. He died at the age of 29 years old, drunk and alone.