Dylan Thomas

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For other uses, see Dylan Thomas (disambiguation).
Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas 1914-53
Born 27 October 1914[1]
Swansea, South Wales[1]
Died 9 November 1953 (aged 39)[1]
New York, USA[1]
Occupation Poet
Literary movement Modernism
Romanticism
Spouse(s) Caitlin Macnamara (1913-1994)
Children Llewelyn Edouard Thomas (1939-2000)
Aeronwy Bryn Thomas (b. 1942)
Colm Garan Hart Thomas (b. 1949)
Influences
Influenced

Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet.[1][2] In addition to poetry he wrote short stories, and scripts for film and radio which he often performed himself. His public readings, particularly in America, won him great acclaim; his booming, at times ostentatious, voice with a subtle Welsh lilt, became almost as famous as his works. His best known works include Under Milk Wood and Do not go gentle into that good night, a poem written in 1951 about his dying father.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Dylan Thomas was born in the front upstairs bedroom at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, situated in the Uplands area of Swansea, South Wales, on 27 October 1914. Uplands was, as it is today, one of the more affluent areas of the city, which kept him away from the more industrial side of the city. His father, David John Thomas, was an English master who taught English literature at the local grammar school. His mother, Florence Hannah Thomas ( née Williams), was a seamstress born in Swansea. Dylan had a sister, Nancy, eight years older than he. Their father brought up both children to speak English only, even though both parents spoke Welsh.

Dylan is pronounced 'Dul-an' in Welsh, and in the early part of his career some announcers introduced him using this pronunciation. However, Dylan preferred the more well-known pronunciation that is used today, 'Dill-an'. Thomas' middle name, Marlais, was given to him in honour of his great-uncle, Unitarian minister William Thomas, better known by his bardic name Gwilym Marles. Thomas was known to be a sickly child and was considered too frail to fight in World War II, instead serving the war effort by writing scripts for the government. He suffered from bronchitis and asthma, but he also liked to play upon his sickliness.

His childhood was spent largely in Swansea, with regular summer trips to visit his aunt's (his mother's sister) Carmarthenshire dairy farm. These rural sojourns and the contrast with the town life of Swansea provided inspiration for much of his work, notably many short stories, radio essays and the poem Fern Hill.

Thomas's formal education began at Mrs. Hole's 'Dame School', a private school, which was situated a few streets away on Mirador Crescent. He described his experience there in Quite Early One Morning (New Directions Publishing, 1968 - see Google BookSearch):

Never was there such a dame school as ours, so firm and kind and smelling of galoshes, with the sweet and fumbled music of the piano lessons drifting down from upstairs to the lonely schoolroom, where only the sometimes tearful wicked sat over undone sums, or to repent a little crime - the pulling of a girl's hair during geography, the sly shin kick under the table during English literature."

In October 1925, Thomas attended the single-sex Swansea Grammar School, in the Mount Pleasant district of the city. Thomas's first poem was published in the school's magazine, of which he later became the editor. He left school at 16 to become a reporter for the local newspaper, the South Wales Daily Post, now the South Wales Evening Post, only to leave the job under pressure 18 months later in 1932. He then joined an amateur dramatic group in Mumbles, but still continued to work as a freelance journalist for a few more years.

Thomas spent his days visiting the cinema in the Uplands, walking along Swansea Bay, and frequenting Swansea's public houses, especially those in the Mumbles area, the 'Antelope Hotel' and 'The Mermaid Hotel'; a theatre he used to perform at, among them. Thomas was also a regular patron of the 'Kardomah Café' on High Street in the centre of Swansea, a short walk from the local newspaper for which he worked, where he mingled with various contemporaries, such as his good friend poet Vernon Watkins. These poets, musicians, and artists became known as 'The Kardomah Gang'.

In February 1941 Swansea was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 'The Three Nights Blitz'. High Street was just one of the many streets in Swansea that suffered badly; the rows of shops on High Street, including the 'Kardomah Café', were destroyed. Thomas later wrote about this in his radio play Return Journey Home, in which he describes the Café as being "Razed to the snow". Return Journey Home was first broadcast on 15 June 1947 and was written soon after Thomas came back to visit Swansea shortly after the bombing raids. Thomas walked the bombed-out shells, which was once his home town centre, with his friend Bert Trick. Upset at the sight, he concluded, "Our Swansea is dead". The 'Kardomah Café' reopened on Portland street, a short walk from the original location.

In 1932, Thomas embarked on what would be one of his various visits to London.

[edit] Career

Thomas wrote half of his poems and many short stories whilst living at his Cwmdonkin home, And death shall have no dominion is one of his best known works written at this address. His highly acclaimed[3] first poetry volume, 18 Poems, was published on December 18, 1934, the same year he moved to London. The publication of 18 Poems won him many new admirers from the world of poetry, including Edith Sitwell; although it was also the time that his reputation for alcohol misuse developed. The publication of Deaths and Entrances in 1946 was a major turning point[4][5][6] in his career. Thomas was well known for being a versatile and dynamic speaker, best known for his poetry readings.[7] His powerful voice would captivate American audiences during his speaking tours of the early 1950s. He made over 200 broadcasts for the BBC. Often considered his greatest single work is Under Milk Wood, a radio play featuring the characters of Llareggub, a fictional Welsh fishing village (humorously named; note that 'Llareggub' is 'Bugger All' backwards, implying that there is absolutely nothing there to do). Richard Burton starred in the first broadcast; he was joined by Elizabeth Taylor in a subsequent film.

[edit] Marriage and children

In the spring of 1936, Dylan Thomas met his wife Caitlin MacNamara; they met in the Wheatsheaf public house, in the Fitzrovia area of London's West End. A drunken Thomas proposed marriage on the spot, to the dancer Caitlin, and the two began a courtship.[8]

On 11 July 1937, Thomas married MacNamara at Penzance registry office in Cornwall. In 1938, the couple rented a cottage in the place Thomas was to help make famous, the village of Laugharne, in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. Their first child was born on 30 January 1939, a boy whom they named Llewelyn Edouard (died in 2000). He was followed on 3 March 1943 by a daughter, Aeronwy. A second son, Colm Garan Hart, was born on 24 July 1949.

The marriage was tempestuous, with rumours of affairs on both sides; Caitlin had an affair with Augustus John before, and quite possibly after, she married Thomas.

[edit] Alcoholism

Dylan's image on the pub sign of his Laugharne 'local', Browns Hotel.
Dylan's image on the pub sign of his Laugharne 'local', Browns Hotel.

Thomas liked to boast about his drinking, saying;

"An alcoholic is someone you don't like, who drinks as much as you do."[9]

Though Thomas "liked the taste of beer," and he did quite his fair share of drinking, the amount he drank may have been an exaggeration. For example, during an incident on 3 November 1953, Thomas returned to the Chelsea Hotel in New York, from the White Horse Tavern and exclaimed, "I've had eighteen straight whiskies, I think that is a record." However, the barman and the owner of the pub who served Thomas at the time, later told Ruthven Todd, that Thomas couldn't have drunk more than half that amount, after Todd decided to find out. Ruthven Todd, a Scottish poet, introduced Thomas to the White Horse Tavern, which quickly became a firm favourite of the Welshman.

Here are just some of the Public Houses that Thomas liked to frequent:

The Uplands Hotel - The Uplands, Swansea. (Now known as The Uplands Tavern)
The Mermaid Hotel - The Mumbles, Swansea. (Destroyed by fire then rebuilt)
The Antelope Hotel - The Mumbles, Swansea. (Still remains as The Antelope).
The No Sign Wine Bar - Wind Street, Swansea. (One of the oldest public houses in Swansea)
Browns Hotel - Laugharne, Carmarthenshire. (Still remains, and is much the same)
The White Horse Tavern - Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York.

Before Thomas left for New York in 1953, he stayed at The Bush Hotel in Swansea, which was later known as The Bush Inn.

[edit] New York and death

May 1953 saw the world premiere of Thomas' play Under Milk Wood, with Thomas himself playing the part of the narrator. The Assistant Director of the play was one Liz Reitell -- it was Reitell's task to help put the play on the stage, also finding a suitable cast in the process. It was also around this time that Thomas was to engage in a love affair with Reitell, even though their initial meeting was, to her, a disappointment. The play itself was a great triumph, even though the final draft for the ending of Under Milk Wood was only completed just before the actors went on stage, with the help of Reitell herself. It was because of this performance that Thomas was asked to work on the libretto of an opera for the composer, Igor Stravinsky. It was also around this time that Thomas' health rapidly began to deteriorate as a result of his drinking; he was warned by his doctor to give up alcohol but he carried on regardless.

On 3 November 1953, Thomas and Reitell celebrated his 39th birthday and the success of 18 Poems. On 5 November, at the White Horse Tavern, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, when he started to feel ill. He decided go back to his room at the Hotel Chelsea, where he later collapsed and slipped into a coma. An ambulance was called, which took him to St Vincent's Hospital. Thomas died four days later on 9 November 1953 at around 1pm.

It has been noted that Thomas died at the Hotel Chelsea, However, the aforementioned details of his death show this to be untrue.

Attributing factors towards the cause of death are recorded as pneumonia, a result of the coma, with pressure upon the brain. Emphysema was also noted, due to Thomas' smoking habit and possibly his intake of morphine. His liver, according to the pathologist, was surprisingly healthier than one would have imagined. "Chronic alcohol poisoning" was eventually ruled as the official cause of death.

His last words, according to Jack Heliker, were: "After 39 years, this is all I've done." However, various sources state that Thomas' last words were to Reitell, a woman he was having an affair with, "Yes, I believe you", after she tried to reassure him about his sudden illness. Others say his last words were, "I love you, but I am alone.", again said to Liz Reitell. The most popular myth is that Thomas' last words were, "I've had eighteen straight whiskies, I think that is a record."

It has also been said that the only person to be in the room with Dylan Thomas when he died was the poet John Berryman.

Following his death, his body was brought back to Wales for his burial in the village churchyard at Laugharne on November 25. One of the last people to stay at his graveside after the funeral was his mother, Florence. His wife, Caitlin, died in 1994 and was buried alongside him.

[edit] Poetry

"In My Craft Or Sullen Art:"[10]

Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.

From "In the White Giant's Thigh:"

Who once were a bloom of wayside brides in the hawed house and heard the lewd wooed field flow to the coming frost the scurrying furred small friars squeal in the dowse of day in the thistle aisle till the white owl crossed..."[11]

Thomas' poem And Death Shall Have no Dominion, is noted for its metaphysical sentiment and the notion that death shall never triumph over life.[12]

And death shall have no dominion
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone
They shall have stars at elbow and foot
Though they go mad they shall be sane
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again
Though lovers be lost love shall not
And death shall have no dominion.

Thomas' poetry often appears in anthologies - usually "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night".

[edit] Thomas memorials

See also: Cultural depictions of Dylan Thomas
Statue of Dylan Thomas in Swansea's Maritime Quarter, unveiled by Lady Mary Wilson.
Statue of Dylan Thomas in Swansea's Maritime Quarter, unveiled by Lady Mary Wilson.

As it may be expected of a famous poet, whose best known line is "Do not go gentle into that good night", many memorials have been inaugurated to honour Thomas, most of which can be found in his home of Swansea.

Tourists in his home town of Swansea can visit a statue in the city's Maritime Quarter, the Dylan Thomas (Little) Theatre, and the Dylan Thomas Centre, formerly the town's guildhall. The latter is now a literature centre, where exhibitions and lectures are held, and is the setting for the city's annual 'Dylan Thomas Festival'. Another monument to Thomas stands in Cwmdonkin Park, one of his favourite childhood haunts, close to his birthplace at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive. The memorial is a small rock in a closed-off garden, set within the park. The rock is inscribed with the closing lines from one of his best-loved poems, 'Fern Hill'

"Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means/Time held me green and dying/Though I sang in my chains like the sea."[13]

Dylan's £5 writing shed overlooking the Afon Taf, near the Boat House, Laugharne. It cost £75 to erect on its cliff-ledge platform in the 1920s, when it was used to garage a Wolsey car.
Dylan's £5 writing shed overlooking the Afon Taf, near the Boat House, Laugharne. It cost £75 to erect on its cliff-ledge platform in the 1920s, when it was used to garage a Wolsey car.

Thomas's home in Laugharne, the Boathouse, has been made a memorial.

Several of the pubs in Swansea also have associations with the poet. One of Swansea's oldest pubs, the No Sign Bar, was a regular haunt of Thomas'. It is mentioned in his story, The Followers but renamed, the 'Wine Vaults'.

Thomas' obituary was written by his long-term friend Vernon Watkins. A class 153 locomotive was named Dylan Thomas 1914 - 1953. In 2004 a new literary prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize,[14] was created in honour of the poet. It is awarded to the best published writer in English under the age of 30.

In 1982, a plaque was unveiled in honour of Dylan Thomas, in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.

[edit] References in pop culture

Various artists have acknowledged Thomas' influence with tributes:

  • John Waite's song "NYC Girl" includes the line "Dylan Thomas rides a white horse drunk, at the counter next to me". Obviously a reference to Thomas, and one of his favorite establishments, the White Horse Tavern. Thomas became ill at the Tavern 4 days before his death.
  • “Under Milk Wood” a 1965 album by Stan Tracey (its full title is 'Under Milk Wood: Stan Tracey's Jazz Suite Inspired By Dylan Thomas’) is one of the most celebrated jazz recordings made in the United Kingdom. Tracey was inspired to compose the suite by hearing the original 1953 BBC broadcast on an LP his wife Jackie had acquired
  • The band The Decemberists reference Under Milk Wood character NoGood Boyo and his "whalebone corset" in their song Billy Liar.
  • An episode of the Beauty and the Beast Tv Series is titled after Thomas' poem "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" and the poem is repeated several times during at least two episodes of the show in the 2nd and 3rd seasons.
  • The film Dangerous Minds mentions Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" in comparison to Bob Dylan's "Let Me Die in My Footsteps".
  • Musician Ben Taylor named his 2003 album Famous Among the Barns as tribute to Dylan Thomas.
  • In Solaris (2002), Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) reads the first stanza of "And Death Shall Have no Dominion".
  • The musician Momus named his 2006 album Ocky Milk, partly named after a character in 'Under Milk Wood'
  • Dylan Thomas is mentioned in the song "Airplane/Primitive" by The Slip off of their 2006 release "Eisenhower"
  • Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman) allegedly named himself after him.
  • Pittsburgh based band The Gathering Field wrote a song entitled "Dylan Thomas Days" with many references to Dylan and his drinking.
  • The comic series Preacher features a story taking place in New York, where the character Cassidy makes a reference to drinking with Thomas on the night of his death.
  • In PeterDe Vries’s 1964 novel "Reuben, Reuben," and in the 1983 movie based on it, the character Gowan McGland is loosely based on Dylan Thomas.
  • In the WWII video game Call of Duty 3, one character remarks that the Germans "will not go quietly into that good night".

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Poetry

  • Collected Poems 1934 – 1953 (London: Phoenix, 2003)
  • Selected Poems (London: Phoenix, 2001)
  • 18 Poems (1934)[OOP]
  • 25 Poems (1936) [OOP]
  • The Map of Love (1939) [OOP]
  • The World I Breathe (1939) [OOP]
  • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940)
  • New Poems (1943) [OOP]
  • Deaths and Entrances (1946) [OOP]
  • Selected Writings of Dylan Thomas (1946) [OOP]
  • Twenty-Six Poems (1950) [OOP]
  • In Country Sleep (1952) [OOP]
  • Collected Poems, 1934-1952 (1952)
  • The Doctor and the Devils and Other Scripts (1953)
  • Under Milk Wood: A Play For Voices (1954)
  • Quite Early One Morning (1954)
  • Adventures in the Skin Trade and Other Stories (1955)
  • A Prospect of the Sea (1955) [OOP]
  • A Child's Christmas in Wales (1955)
  • Letters to Vernon Watkins (1957)
  • The Doctor and the Devils and Other Scripts
  • The Beach of Falesa (1964) [OOP]
  • Dylan Thomas - a Collection of Critical Essays: Charles B. Cox (ed.) (1966) [OOP]
  • The Poems of Dylan Thomas (1979)
  • The Collected Stories of Dylan Thomas (1984)
  • On the Air With Dylan Thomas: The Broadcasts
  • Eight Stories (1993)
  • Dylan Thomas: The Complete Screenplays (1995)
  • Rebecca's Daughters: A Film Scenario
  • Fern Hill: An Illustrated edition of the Dylan Thomas poem. [1998]

[edit] Prose

  • Collected Letters
  • Collected Stories
  • Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940 Dent)
  • Under Milk Wood
  • Quite Early One Morning (posthumous)
  • Adventures In The Skin Trade And Other Stories (1955, posthumous)
  • Rebecca's Daughters (1965)
  • After the Fair
  • The Tree
  • The Dress
  • The Visitor
  • The Vest

[edit] Drama

  • The Doctor and the Devils (1964)

[edit] Discography

  • Dylan Thomas: Volume I - A Child's Christmas in Wales and Five Poems (Caedmon TC 1002 - 1952)
  • Under Milk Wood (Caedmon TC 2005 - 1953)
  • Dylan Thomas: Volume II - Selections from the Writings of Dylan Thomas (Caedmon TC 1018 - 1954)
  • Dylan Thomas: Volume III - Selections from the Writings of Dylan Thomas (Caedmon TC 1043)
  • Dylan Thomas: Volume IV - Selections from the Writings of Dylan Thomas (Caedmon TC 1061)
  • Dylan Thomas: Quite early one morning and other memories (Caedmon TC 1132 - 1960)

[edit] Filmography

  • Dylan Thomas: A War Films Anthology (DDHE/IWM D23702 - 2006 (DVD Region 0))

[edit] Impact on other cultural figures

  • It is rumoured the young American folk singer born Robert Zimmerman, took the stage name Bob Dylan in 1960 - partly in homage to Dylan Thomas - and partly to evoke the image of a bohemian poet that the name Dylan conveyed to the college-educated baby boomer generation - because of Dylan Thomas's iconic status. In August 1962 Zimmerman changed his name legally to Robert Dylan.
  • Welsh musician John Cale has been highly influenced by the work of Dylan Thomas, even setting several of his poems (There Was a Saviour, On a Wedding Anniversary, Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night) to orchestral music on his 1989 album Words for the Dying, as well as a musical setting of "A Child's Christmas in wales" on his album Paris 1919.
  • American author Shirley Jackson met Thomas once briefly in her family home and, while accounts of their meeting vary, Shirley was allegedly deeply affected by the encounter. She wrote several short stories dedicated to and loosely based around Thomas. Only one of these short stories, "The Lovely House", was published during Jackson's lifetime; it appears in the posthumous collection Come Along With Me. Another story, "A Great Voice Stilled", is based on the academics that analysed Thomas after his death; this story appears in another posthumous collection of Jackson's work, Just An Ordinary Day.
  • Leeds-based band Chumbawumba have used the words to the poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" as the basis for the lyrics of the songs "Rage" from the album Anarchy and "Song for Derek Jarman" from the Homophobia EP. Both feature the same lyrical fragment, although it is re-written slightly to fit the music more easily:
    Don't go gently into the night,
    Rage against the dying of the light"
  • The poet Rehan Qayoom wrote a parody of 'If I were tickled by the rub of love' called 'If I were pickled by the nub of love' in Thomas' style.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e "Dylan Thomas", Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 11 January 2008
  2. ^ "Biography - Dylan Thomas", BBC Wales, 11 January 2008
  3. ^ "Dylan Thomas - In The Mercy of His Means", George Tremlett, 1991, ISBN 0-09-472180-7
  4. ^ "It is difficult to convey in a few words the quality of Mr Thomas's poetry" Vita Sackville-West, The Observer.
  5. ^ "Dylan Thomas is not only the best living Welsh poet, but is a great poet." John Betjeman, The Daily Herald.
  6. ^ "This book alone, in my opinion, ranks him as a major poet", W. J. Turner, The Spectator.
  7. ^ Poem of the Week from 10/29/97
  8. ^ Race to put the passion of Dylan's Caitlin on big screen | UK News | The Observer
  9. ^ Dylan Thomas Quotes
  10. ^ In My Craft Or Sullen Art - Poem by Dylan Thomas
  11. ^ In the White Giant's Thigh
  12. ^ And Death Shall Have No Dominion
  13. ^ Dylan Thomas - FERN HILL
  14. ^ Dylan Thomas Prize - Home