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Some of the best uses of symbolism:

• “Red blood” is homogenous to “green age” from the first stanza – they both represent life and vivacity.

• The speaker can be referring to a ship where the “shroud” is one of the ropes that support a ship’s mast; in this case the “hand’s” power is demonstrated as it controls the ship’s course.

This website has even more about the story's symbolism 

The Complete Literary Analysis for The Force that Through The Green Fuse Drives the Flower by Dylan Thomas

The poem in its entirety should be considered as the cyclical nature of life and death.  Had we (or anything) never been alive, it would not ever die, obviously.  While both "forces" are present, the power of the destructive often appears to be the stronger, for death always ends life.  Still, the price paid is worth it.  For me, Thomas' poem is not morbid, just a recogition of the reality of death, a reminder of life's brevity and its worth. Some of the symbolism the speaker uses to remind us of this duality is "the lover's tomb" and "wintry fever."