Poet #2 - Dylan Thomas

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

So, I acquired a used copy of Collected Poems during my visit to the used bookstore a couple of days ago, and I have been perusing the contents since then.

I've read about twenty of the poems within -- a few of them, such as "Fern Hill" (thanks pepe), "Do not go gentle...", "Ceremony After a Fire Raid, "Find meat on bones," "The hand that signed the paper," and most recently, "Our Eunuch Dreams" have left a lasting impression on me. Some haven't, of course, but the ratio isn't half bad.

I guess the choice of Thomas isn't out so out-of-place with what I'm used to, as in many ways, the poetry reflects Romantic sentiments. Most of the poetry is highly subjective -- whether it is his emotions filtered through colorful images/places, bizarre wordplay, or simply rich, musical language. That isn't to say I can box him in this category, because I don't think that's true. But there are certainly connections. And there's a certain feeling to his poetry that I admire -- I can't really describe it. Probably has something to do with the seemingly random nature of it.

Also, on the upside, he is far more readable to me because he is relatively recent compared to what I'm used to. It's amazing how much of a difference "modern" English makes.

The only downsides of his approach, as I can see them are:

A) I feel like he's writing what makes sense to him, and that often leaves me out in the cold.

B) Coming off A, I feel like I'm missing something since I didn't hear him recite any of them himself. This would probably be the ideal experience with his poetry.

One final thought: he seems really hung up on biblical imagery, sex, and death. Makes for an interesting combination.

So, in conclusion, I really admire the guy's work, but think he can be extremely hit-or-miss. And I certainly missed out on not being able to hear him recite them himself. Seeing as how I'm on "A Saint About to Fall" right now, I'll just metion a few of the lines here I find most fascinating:

"Cut Christbread spitting vinegar and all"/"The mazes of his praise and envious tongue were worked in flames and shells."

"The sweet, fish-gilled boats bringing blood"/"Lurched through a scuttled sea"/"With a hold of leeches and straws,"/"Heaven fell with his fall and one crocked bell beat the left air"

"The skull of the earth is barbed with a war of burning brains and hair."

Thoughts and/or comments?

― mj (robert blake), Sunday, 26 June 2005 03:01 (twenty years ago)

Some years ago I almost had a huge row with a total dickhead of an uncle of mine who wanted me to read "Do not go gentle..." at his mother's funeral because it was his favourite poem about death. I told him, in soothing terms, that I didn't think it was a really appropriate poem to read, especially at the funeral of a woman who died peacefully after a short illness in her eighties and even got to see two of her children who hadn't spoken to each other in 30 years reconciled before she went.

He told me not to be so patronising, just because I went to college I thought I knew everything, blah de blah. So I got up and read the poem and all the time kept thinking, is this really what they want to be saying?

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Sunday, 26 June 2005 07:53 (twenty years ago)

It's not hard to get recordings of his work, btw.

― M. White (Miguelito), Sunday, 26 June 2005 08:51 (twenty years ago)

accentmonkey:

That is too bad. The poem is anything but gentle, or peaceful, for that matter. And why do people always find the need to use the "college as snobbery/elitism" when they disagree with you and don't want to seriously discuss something? It has happened a number of times to me, as well, and I really loathe it.

M. White:

Are you talking about the Caedmon collection audiobook? It looks interesting, and I'll most certainly ebay it sometime in the near future.

― mj (robert blake), Sunday, 26 June 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

http://archive.salon.com/audio/2000/10/05/thomasd/

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 26 June 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

I get the impression he was more highly regarded in the US than in Britain. Is that still true, I wonder?

I prefer his later work. His early stuff is full of memorable lines, often great first lines (The Force The Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower, I see the boys of summer in their ruin) but the poems are usually opaque and incoherent. He's good at grabbing you, but the longer I pondered the early poems the less impressive they seemed. If a string of wonderful & bizarre sounds and images is what you want, fine, but if you want the poem to actually mean something he is less satisfying. Of course, there are innumberable explications of these poems but they invariably appear forced to me, meaning imposed not meaning discovered.

It's hard not to suspect that the opacity of the early poems is an attempt to disguise the fact that Thomas has an extravagant talent but nothing to say; or at least a lack of confidence that what he has to say is big enough to justify the hyperbolic, Miltonic and biblical sonorities he was in love with.

With the later, and often more straightforward poems (Fern Hill is the outstanding example) you get a different problem. You realise that he *can* do clarity, that he *can* develop feeling consistently through a poem. But once his meaning becomes clearer, sentimentality and emotional self-indulgence never seem far away. There is a streak of vulgarity in him, including a tendency to be slightly too easily pleased with the noise he was making. The sound of his verse reflects this - he obviously had a terrific natural ear, but sonic restraint and subtlety didn't interest him any more than restraint of feeling (Do Not Go Gentle arguably an exception).

His poems should be heard: Richard Burton practically built a career on mimicking the sonorities of Thomas's voice.

― frankiemachine, Monday, 27 June 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

His poems should be heard: Richard Burton practically built a career on mimicking the sonorities of Thomas's voice.

OTM.

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
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.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 27 June 2005 21:09 (twenty years ago)

Most libraries have recordings of many poets reading their own poetry. I now have Dylan Thomas in my head, so that I can read (to myself) his poems with his voice.... a favorite teacher (also a great poet) of mine--Leslie Norris--from Wales as well, reads Thomas wonderfully. And, I believe, read at his funeral. Maybe it's the accent. And the phrasing.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)

I like Frankie's take on him; I was first introduced to poetry through Thomas, and I'm grateful for all his energy and pithy mouthfuls of language. But what did most of those poems actually mean? Full of sound and fury, signifying... not exactly nothing, because he had a huge effect on so many of us. But I think he's a bit like e.e. cummings—he speaks to adolescents mostly. Also a sad career, in that he didn't really develop—except for, of course, Do Not Go Gentle, which is one of the most often quoted poems from the 20th century, and quite an achievement. I wish there were more like that—but there weren't
I love his collection of letters. There is so much there, so much potential

― Donald, Wednesday, 29 June 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)

no-one has mentioned under milk wood yet!

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

and this renders me excitable!!

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

I was thinking partly about Under Milk Wood in my comments about the later work. One of those works of art that inspired a better one, Stan Tracy's Under Milk Wood Suite, in particular the peerless Starless and Bible Black.

― frankiemachine, Friday, 1 July 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

how about king crimson's starless and bible black?

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 1 July 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

Under Milk Wood is pretty much marvellous as far as I'm concerned, though. possibly w/r/t what you say about his work he gets out of the nothing-to-say/nothing-worth-saying bizniz by stepping back and just showing, although i don't particularly care to develop that - also it finds useful places for his "vulgarity" to happen

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 1 July 2005 11:00 (twenty years ago)

I like UMW too - I didn't mean to damn it with faint praise as much as my post maybe implies. I've heard about 5 King Crimson albums but not that one. I like them ok but I'm not a major fan.

― frankiemachine, Friday, 1 July 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

At one time I was going to memorize all of Under Milk Wood. (Only managed part of it tho' and cannot now remember much: Gallop, you bleeding cripple! And the huge horse neighs softly as if he had given it a lump of sugar.) I think I shall go buy another copy. I'm sure some of it would come back! Who was it said "Poetry should not MEAN, but BE"? Not that I agree entirely with that, but sometimes, with Dylan Thomas, "being" is enough.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Friday, 1 July 2005 13:47 (twenty years ago)

There is a collection of his short stories, too, that is worth reading.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Friday, 1 July 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

Oh, wait. And how could we forget A Child's Christmas in Wales. Another one I was going to memorize. I still remember most of this. In his voice.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Friday, 1 July 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

buh dum dum dum dum DBUM duh-m

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 1 July 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

...as I was a windy boy and a bit
and the black spit of the chapel fold
sighed the old ramrod....

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Sunday, 10 July 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

POETRY SUCKS

― Crunk ass nigga, Monday, 5 September 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

OH SNAP

― pr00de descending a staircase (pr00de), Monday, 5 September 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

And yet clearly you went with "Crunk ass nigga" for its poetic qualities.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 5 September 2005 21:24 (twenty years ago)

Dylan Thomas is one of the few people in history I wouldn't mind sucking my ass.

― SRH (Skrik), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

"WHAT?? Who's there?"

"Oh, don't mind me. It's just me, Dylan Thomas. I'm sucking your ass."

"Oh. OK. Carry on, Dylan."

― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

nine years pass...

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n22/seamus-perry/everything-is-good-news

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 26 November 2014 13:47 (eleven years ago)

six months pass...

might go see set fire to the stars. does anyone have any thoughts on it?

― F♯ A♯ (∞), Friday, 19 June 2015 17:42 (ten years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.