Editing Dylan Thomas (section)

==Poetry==
===Poetic style and influences===
Thomas's refusal to align with any literary group or movement has made him and his work difficult to categorise.{{sfnp|Olson|1954|p=2}} However the formative influence of the modernist [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolist]] and [[surrealism|surrealist]] movements has been discerned  throughout his poetic output and as especially evident in his poetry of the 1930s, the period in which he forged a unique modernist poetic which rejected the referential, discursive and often propagandist voice of his contemporaries for a relish of exuberant word-play and language itself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodby |first=John |title=Dylan Thomas |last2=Wigginton |first2=Chris |series= Critical Lives|publisher=Reaktion Books |year=2024|pages= 10, 26–7, 57|isbn=9781789149326 |location=London}}</ref>

Thomas took his major theme as the unity of all life in which the turmoil of sexuality and death linked the generations, envisaging men and women locked in cycles of growth, love, procreation, new growth, death, and new life. Thomas derived  his imagery from sources which include the new scientific accounts of [[physiology]] and sexuality, the Bible, Welsh folklore, and [[Sigmund Freud]] as well as from the established literary canon.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodby |first1=John |title=Discovering Dylan Thomas: a companion to the "Collected poems" and Notebook poems |date=2017|pages= 9–25 |publisher=University of Wales press |location=Cardiff |isbn=9781783169634}}</ref>

Whereas earlier appraisals of his work have found an impasse in its obscurity 
<ref>{{harvp|Olson|1954|p=2}}: "The age was fond of explicating obscure poetry; the poetry of Thomas was so obscure that no one could explicate it.”</ref> more recent accounts have given readings which have explored in depth the complexity of Thomas’s allusions, accepting that obscurity, paradox and ambiguity are integral to his work.<ref>Goodby, J.(2017) ''Discovering Dylan Thomas: A Companion to the Collected Poems and Notebook Poems''.  Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 15</ref>  As Thomas wrote in a letter to Glyn Jones: "My own obscurity is quite an unfashionable one, based, as it is, on a preconceived symbolism derived (I'm afraid all this sounds wooly and pretentious) from the cosmic significance of the human anatomy”.<ref>[[Paul Ferris (Welsh writer)|Ferris, Paul]] (ed.) (2017), ''Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters'', Introduction by Paul Ferris. Vol I: 1931–1939. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p.122 (Letter dd. 14 March 1934)</ref> 
{{Quote box |width=380px |align=right|quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
|quote =<poem>
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 aisles, till the white owl crossed
</poem>
|source =From "In the white giant's thigh" (1950)<ref>''The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: The New Centenary Edition''. Ed. with Introduction and annotations by John Goodby. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014. p. 197</ref> 
}}

Distinguishing features of Thomas's early poetry include its verbal density, use of [[alliteration]], [[sprung rhythm]] and [[internal rhyme]], with some critics detecting the influence of the English poet [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]].<ref name="WAEoW"/> Walford Davies suggests there is little else than “a coincidence of poetic temprament.”<ref>{{cite book | last =Davies|first =Walford|author-link =|date = 2014| title = Dylan Thomas|series = Writers of Wales| location = Cardiff| publisher = University of Wales Press|page=16}}</ref>  Thomas himself wrote to  [[Henry Treece]], who had compared the two, denying any significant influence.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=115}} Thomas also employed fixed verse form, such as in the [[villanelle]] "Do not go gentle into that good night".

Thomas greatly admired [[Thomas Hardy]], who is regarded as an influence.<ref name="WAEoW"/><ref>{{cite book | last =Davies|first =Walford|author-link =|date = 2014| title = Dylan Thomas|series = Writers of Wales| location = Cardiff| publisher = University of Wales Press|page=79}}</ref> When Thomas travelled in America, he recited some of Hardy's work in his readings.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|pp=259–260}} Other poets from whom critics believe Thomas drew influence include [[James Joyce]], [[Arthur Rimbaud]] and [[D. H. Lawrence]]. [[William York Tindall]], in his 1962 study, ''A Reader's Guide to Dylan Thomas'', finds comparison between Thomas's and Joyce's wordplay, while he notes the themes of rebirth and nature are common to the works of Lawrence and Thomas.{{sfnp|Tindall|1996|p=14}}<ref group="nb">In reply to a student's questions in 1951, Thomas stated: "I do not think that Joyce has had any hand at all in my writing; certainly his ''Ulysses'' has not. On the other hand, I cannot deny on the shaping of some of my ''Portrait'' stories might owe something to Joyce's stories in the volume, ''Dubliners''. But then ''Dubliners'' was a pioneering work in the world of the short story, and no good storywriter since can have failed, in some way, however little, to have benefited by it." ({{harvp|FitzGibbon|1965|p=370}}).</ref> Although Thomas described himself as the "Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive", he stated that the phrase "Swansea's Rimbaud" was coined by poet [[Roy Campbell (poet)|Roy Campbell]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/dylanthomas-kunitz-3524|title= Review of Dylan Thomas: His Life & Work by John Ackerman|first1= Daniel|last1= Kunitz|access-date= 20 July 2012|date= September 1996}}</ref>{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=186}}<ref group="nb">{{harvp|Ferris|1989|p=186}} notes that in a [[BBC Home Service]] programme aired in 1950, ''Poetic Licence'', in which Campbell and Thomas appeared, Thomas said "I won't forgive you for the Swansea's Rimbaud, because you called me that first Roy".</ref> Critics have explored the origins of Thomas's mythological pasts in his works such as "The Orchards", which Ann Elizabeth Mayer believes reflects the Welsh myths of the ''Mabinogion''.<ref name="UMW Chron"/><ref>{{cite book|title= Artists in Dylan Thomas's Prose Works: Adam Naming and Aesop Fabling|first1= Ann Elizabeth|last1= Mayer |year= 1995|publisher= McGill-Queens |page= 31|access-date= 26 July 2012 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=N89BWqRT0IYC&q=%22dylan+Thomas%22+%22welsh+myth%22&pg=PA31|isbn= 978-0-7735-1306-8}}</ref><ref group="nb">"The Orchard" makes reference to the 'Black Book of Llareggub'. Here Thomas makes links with religion and the mythic Wales of the [[White Book of Rhydderch]] and the [[Black Book of Carmarthen]].{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}</ref>
Thomas's poetry is notable for its musicality,<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/poets/dylan_thomas.shtml |title= Creating the Thomas myth|publisher= BBC|access-date= 31 July 2012}}</ref> most clear in "Fern Hill", "In Country Sleep", "Ballad of the Long-legged Bait" and "In the White Giant's Thigh".

In 1951, in response to an American student's question, Thomas alluded to the formative influence of the nursery rhymes which his parents taught him when he was a child:
{{Blockquote | I should say I wanted to write poetry in the beginning because I had fallen in love with words.  The first poems I knew were nursery rhymes and before I could read them for myself I had come to love the words of them. The words alone. What the words stood for was of a very secondary importance... I fell in love, that is the only expression I can think of, at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behaviour very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy. I tumbled for words at once. And, when I began to read the nursery rhymes for myself, and, later, to read other verses and ballads, I knew that I had discovered the most important things, to me, that could be ever.{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|p=367}}}}

Thomas became an accomplished writer of [[prose poetry]], with collections such as ''Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog'' (1940) and ''Quite Early One Morning'' (1954) showing he was capable of writing moving short stories.<ref name="WAEoW" /> His first published prose work, ''After the Fair'', appeared in ''The New English Weekly'' on 15 March 1934.<ref>{{cite book|title= Gurdjieff and Orage: Brothers in Elysium|last1= Taylor|first1= Paul Beekman|isbn= 978-1-57863-128-5|year= 2001|publisher= Weiser Books|page= 193}}</ref> Jacob Korg believes that one can classify Thomas's fiction work into two main bodies: vigorous fantasies in a poetic style and, after 1939, more straightforward narratives.{{sfnp|Korg|1965|pp=154–82}} Korg surmises that Thomas approached his prose writing as an alternate poetic form, which allowed him to produce complex, involuted narratives that do not allow the reader to rest.{{sfnp|Korg|1965|pp=154–82}}

===Welsh poet===
{{Quote box |width=300px |align=right |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
 |quote =<poem>
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.
</poem> |source =From "[[In my craft or sullen art]]" <br/> ''[[Deaths and Entrances]]'', 1946<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178640|title=In my Craft or Sullen Art|publisher=Poetry Foundation|access-date=27 July 2012 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623170252/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178640 |archive-date=23 June 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}  Thomas disliked being regarded as a provincial poet and decried any notion of 'Welshness' in his poetry.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=115}} When he wrote to [[Stephen Spender]] in 1952, thanking him for a review of his ''Collected Poems'', he added "Oh, & I forgot.  I'm not influenced by Welsh bardic poetry. I can't read Welsh."{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=115}} Despite this his work was rooted in the geography of Wales. Thomas acknowledged that he returned to Wales when he had difficulty writing, and John Ackerman argues that "His inspiration and imagination were rooted in his Welsh background".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Cultural policy and place promotion: Swansea and Dylan Thomas|first1=Helen|last1= Watkins|first2=David|last2=Herbert |date=2003|journal=Geoforum |volume=34 |issue=2003 |page=254|doi=10.1016/S0016-7185(02)00078-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Welsh Dylan: An Exhibition to Mark the Twentieth Anniversary of the Poet's Death|first1=John|last1= Ackerman|year=1973|publisher=Welsh Arts Council|location=Cardiff|page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obbyAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> Caitlin Thomas wrote that he worked "in a fanatically narrow groove, although there was nothing narrow about the depth and understanding of his feelings. The groove of direct hereditary descent in the land of his birth, which he never in thought, and hardly in body, moved out of."{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=176}}

Head of Programmes Wales at the BBC, [[Aneirin Talfan Davies]], who commissioned several of Thomas's early radio talks, believed that the poet's "whole attitude is that of the medieval bards." [[Kenneth O. Morgan]] counter-argues that it is a 'difficult enterprise' to find traces of ''[[cynghanedd]]'' (consonant harmony) or ''[[cerdd dafod]]'' (tongue-craft) in Thomas's poetry.<ref name="Morgan-2002">{{cite book |last1=Morgan |first1=Kenneth O. |title=A Rebirth of a Nation |year=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages= [https://archive.org/details/wales18801980reb0000morg/page/263 263–265] |isbn=978-0-19-821760-2 |url= https://archive.org/details/wales18801980reb0000morg/page/263 }}</ref> Instead he believes his work, especially his earlier more autobiographical poems, are rooted in a changing country which echoes the Welshness of the past and the [[Anglicisation]] of the new industrial nation: "rural and urban, chapel-going and profane, Welsh and English, Unforgiving and deeply compassionate."<ref name="Morgan-2002"/> Fellow poet and critic [[Glyn Jones (Welsh writer)|Glyn Jones]] believed that any traces of ''cynghanedd'' in Thomas's work were accidental, although he felt Thomas consciously employed one element of Welsh metrics; that of counting syllables per line instead of [[Foot (prosody)|feet]].{{refn|{{harvp|Jones|1968|pp=179–80}}, notes that in Thomas's early work, such as ''Eighteen Poems'', the [[Iamb (foot)|iambic foot]] was the rhythmic basis of his line, while in his later work a count of syllables replaced a count of [[Accent (poetry)|accents]].|group="nb"}} [[Constantine Fitzgibbon]], who was his first in-depth biographer, wrote "No major English poet has ever been as Welsh as Dylan".{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|p=19}}

Although Thomas had a deep connection with Wales, he disliked [[Welsh nationalism]]. He once wrote, "[[Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau|Land of my fathers]], and my fathers can keep it".{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|p=10}}<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2003/oct/25/unitedkingdom.guardiansaturdaytravelsection |title=To begin at the beginning… |date=25 October 2003|access-date=27 July 2012|first1=Nick|last1=Wroe|work=guardian.co.uk}}</ref> While often attributed to Thomas himself, this line actually comes from the character Owen Morgan-Vaughan, in the screenplay Thomas wrote for the 1948 British melodrama ''[[The Three Weird Sisters]]''. Robert Pocock, a friend from the BBC, recalled "I only once heard Dylan express an opinion on Welsh Nationalism. He used three words. Two of them were Welsh Nationalism."{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|p=10}} Although not expressed as strongly, Glyn Jones believed that he and Thomas's friendship cooled in the later years as he had not 'rejected enough' of the elements that Thomas disliked&nbsp;– "Welsh nationalism and a sort of hill farm morality".{{sfnp|Jones|1968|p=198}} Apologetically, in a letter to [[Keidrych Rhys]], editor of the literary magazine ''[[Wales (magazine)|Wales]]'', Thomas's father wrote that he was "afraid Dylan isn't much of a Welshman".{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|p=10}} Though FitzGibbon asserts that Thomas's negativity towards Welsh nationalism was fostered by his father's hostility towards the Welsh language.<ref>{{cite magazine |url= http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1966/feb/03/dylan-thomas/?pagination=false |title=Dylan Thomas, in response |first1= Constantine |last1=FitzGibbon |magazine=The New York Review |date=3 February 1966 |access-date=28 July 2012}}</ref>