"To Summer" by William Blake (1783)

Published more than 150 years before “I see the boys of summer,” William Blake’s “To Summer” first appeared in his 1783 book Poetical Sketches, but still shares similar themes and stylistic choices, as both writers are associated with Romanticism. Like Thomas, Blake creates vivid depictions of nature combined with human activity. Vivid and emotional like Thomas’s poem, “To Summer” differs in tone, remaining fixated on the joy of summer and never delving into darker imagery.

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower" by Dylan Thomas (1934)

Another poem from the same collection as “I see the boys of summer,” “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower” was an early success for Thomas. Again, life and death are interwoven. The same force that makes flowers bloom, that makes trees grow, also brings aging, and death. Thomas again uses punctuation to control the rhythm of the poem, utilizing semicolons, periods, and commas throughout to create a start-and-stop cadence. Similar themes and aesthetic choices help the poems fit cohesively into the same collection.