Thomas, Dylan Marlais

(1914-1953)

   Born in Swansea, Wales, where his father taught at the Swansea Grammar School, Dylan left school at 17 and spent a year as a reporter on the South Wales Daily Post. His first collection, 18 Poems, was published in 1934, the year in which he moved to London and entered upon a lifestyle of heavy drinking that eventually killed him. Underlying his poetry is a deep sense of the religious, as in "This Bread I Break." He died while on his fourth lecture tour of America, was buried in the parish church of St. Martin, Laugharne, Dyfed, Wales, and is memorialized by a stone in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Thomas also published short stories, wrote film scripts, publicly performed his works and was broadcast regularly on the radio. Under Milk Wood was made into a radio play (1954) (See http://www.geocities.com/dylanwthomas/under_milk_wood.htm for the complete play.). His most famous poem is possibly Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. Some of his other poems: "A Child's Christmas in Wales," "And Death Shall Have No Dominion," "Altarwise by Owl-Light," "Love in the Asylum," "The Conversation of Prayer."

   Sources: Anglo-Welsh Poetry, 1480-1980. Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias, eds. Poetry Wales Press, 1984. Anglo-Welsh Poetry, 1480-1990. Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias, eds. Poetry Wales Press, 1993. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Golden Treasury of the Best Songs & Lyrical Poems in the English Language. Francis Turner Palgrave, ed. Oxford University Press, 1964, Sixth edition, updated by John Press, 1994. Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, 19341952. New Directions, 1953, rev. ed. 1956. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse. Philip Larkin, ed. Oxford University Press, 1973. The Poetry Anthology, 19121977. Daryl Hine and Joseph Parisi, eds. Houghton Mifflin, 1978. The Times Obituary of Dylan Thomas, November 10, 1953. Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).