About Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas was a famous Welsh poet and writer born in Carmarthenshire, Wales, in 1914. His works include the poems “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “And death shall have no dominion”, “the Play for Voices”, “Under Milk Wood”, and stories and radio broadcasts such as “A Child's Christmas in Wales” and “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog”, which was a slightly disguised autobiography written at twenty-five. His first book, however, was put together at twenty and was severely entitled “18 poems”, which, with subsequent poems and short stories, was published in America in 1939 as “The World I Breathe”. A later collection, “In Country Sleep”, appeared in 1952. He became popular in his lifetime and remained so after his premature death in New York City.In his later life he acquired a reputation, which he encouraged, as a roistering, drunken and doomed poet. Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language. He has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century and noted for his original, rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery. Thomas's verbal style played against strict verse forms, such as in the villanelle “Do not go gentle into that good night”. His images were carefully ordered in a patterned sequence, and his major theme was the unity of all life, the continuing process of life and death and new life that linked the generations. His poems have a bardic primitive quality, and there is superimposed on this an awareness of the discoveries of modern psychology. Above all, he impresses by his rich use of words. Although Thomas's poetry is intuitive rather than deliberate, its passion is so genuine, its spirit so persuasive, that few readers can resist it.
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