As always,
Peace
RE Slater
Addendum
“Through throats where many rivers meet, the curlews cry,Under the conceiving moon, on the high chalk hill,And there this night I walk in the white giant’s thighWhere barren as boulders women lie longing stillTo labour and love though they lay down long ago.”
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images |
Several of Thomas’s film scripts have been published, including The Doctor and the Devils and The Beach at Falesa. Neither of these was produced, but they gave Thomas the opportunity to develop his dramatic skills. These skills culminated in his radio play, Under Milk Wood, written over a long period of time and frantically revised in America during the last months of his life. The play grew out of the story “Quite Early One Morning,” which was broadcast by the BBC in 1945. Under Milk Wood is set in a small Welsh town called Llareggub and covers one day in the lives of its provincial characters. Raymond Williams, in an essay for Dylan Thomas: A Collection of Critical Essays, said that Under Milk Wood is “the retained extravagance of an adolescent’s imaginings. Yet it moves, at its best, into a genuine involvement, an actual sharing of experience, which is not the least of its dramatic virtues.” Thomas read the play as a solo performance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 3, 1953; the first group reading was on May 14. The following November, Dylan Thomas died in New York of ailments complicated by alcohol and drug abuse.
Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953) was a Welsh poet best known for Do not go gentle into that good night and radio broadcasts reciting A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (a mischievous nod to fellow Irishman, James Joyce).
Thomas began publishing as a teenager after quitting school at sixteen and briefly working as a journalist. In 1934, he first received literary acclaim for his poem, Light breaks where no sun shines, published in his collection, 18 Poems. His poetic style was greatly influence by the works of William Blake.
[Dylan sketch to the right is by Jessica Dismorr, 1935.]
Making a living as a writer proved difficult, so Thomas augmented his work as a popular radio broadcaster for the BBC, covering the literary scene. He went to America four times in the 1950s, recording a vinyl record to further popularize his iconic work, A Child's Christmas in Wales. Thomas fell into a coma during his last trip to New York City, where he died. His body was returned to his native Wales.
Thomas is considered one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. We are pleased to feature his limited works available in the public domain.