The Hunchback In The Park : Summary

Summary

 Summary 

Dylan Thomas’s poem “The Hunchback in the Park” tells the story of a lonely, deformed man who spends his days and nights in a public park. The poem is based on the poet’s childhood memories of seeing a real hunchback in Swansea Park.

In the first stanza, the poet describes the hunchback as a “solitary mister,” a lonely man sitting between trees and water from morning until evening. He lives quietly, away from everyone.

In the second stanza, we see his poor life. He eats bread wrapped in newspaper and drinks water from a chained cup near a fountain where the poet, as a child, once played. At night, he sleeps in a dog kennel — showing how lonely and neglected he is.

In the third and fourth stanzas, the truant boys from town tease him. They call him “Mister” and mock him for his hunchback. He tries to escape them, hiding from both the cruel boys and the park keeper.

In the fifth stanza, he is shown alone again, sitting quietly among nurses, swans, and children. The boys imagine wild tigers in the park, but the hunchback stays silent and apart, lost in his own world.

In the sixth stanza, the poet shows the hunchback’s imagination. All day he builds an image of a perfect woman — straight and tall — from his crooked body. She is the dream of beauty and love that he never had.

In the last stanza, the park becomes quiet and empty at night. The birds and children go home, but the lonely hunchback goes back to his kennel, followed only by the memory of the wild boys.

The poem shows the pain of loneliness, cruelty of childhood, and the deep desire for love and dignity in an outcast’s heart. It teaches us to feel sympathy for those who live outside society’s care.