Based on a lecture and dramatic reading on poet Dylan Thomas by Daniel Stashower and Scott Sedar under the aegis of Smithsonian Associates.
“A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.” (Dylan Thomas)
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was one of the most romantic, turbulent figures of modern poetry. “I hold an angel, a beast, and a madman in me…my effort is their self expression,” he said. He came to his skill early and agonized over it writing as many as 500 alternatives to a single work, each time copying the entire poem by hand.
Thomas adulterously slept his way through England, Wales and America with a volatile marriage and children at home, earned adulation and later money, both of which slipped through his fingers like sand, and ultimately drank himself to death in the manner of a brakeless train. Time Magazine called him “A chubby, bulb-nosed little Welshman with green eyes, a generally untidy air and the finest lyrical talent of any poet under 40.”
The poet has been the subject of multiple films and books. “His lyrical gifts inspire new generations of writers and poets including the young Bob Zimmerman (aka Dylan) and John Lennon,” Stashower notes. Biographers called him a tormented, exaggerated man and his own worst enemy.
Dylan Thomas (the name Dylan could be translated as “son of the sea”) spent most of his childhood in Swansea, South Wales, yet the boy and his sister never spoke Welsh. His father was a grammar school professor of English Literature, their modest house strewn with books, yet his mother was the storyteller. She doted on her sickly son. (He suffered from bronchitis and asthma.)
Though he edited his school newspaper and published a few poems, Thomas was never a distinguished student. He left academia at 16 to become a junior reporter for the South Wales Daily Post, a profession he’d take up and put down throughout life. The stint only lasted 15 months. During this time, he also joined an amateur theater group. By all reports he loved performing. The skill would later serve in dramatic recitations of his own work.
The artist’s’ first poems were published in 1933. When his initial collection came out a year later, he won a literary contest. “It took two years to sell the 500 printed copies,” our host observes. Because of his tender age, the judges required meeting in person to make sure he’d written the work himself. He was described as “5’6 ½” with mouse brown hair and a broken tooth… wearing plus fours…a provincial bohemian…a gabby, ambitious, mock tough young man.” Three more volumes would follow, all highly lauded.
“The writer amassed 200 poems in four books between 1930 and 1934. Of the 90 poems he published, half were written during these years,” Stashower comments, indicating both fertility and perfectionism. Included among early efforts was one of his most famous, And Death Shall Have No Dominion: “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…” Money was always an issue.
In early 1936, Thomas met French/Irish dancer Caitlin Macnamara to whom he was introduced by her lover, the artist Augustus John. Laying his head in her lap, a drunken Thomas proposed. They began a heated correspondence, courted, and married a year later. Macnamara could hold her own with the volatile artist. Their relationship was tempestuous and often physically violent, fueled by alcohol and infidelity. “It doesn’t matter who I go to bed with because they’re all Caitlin.” (Dylan Thomas) His wife described their relationship as “raw, red, bleeding meat.” Nonetheless they kept getting back together. For Caitlin’s side of the story read: Caitlin Thomas – Leftover Life to Kill and/or Caitlin: Life With Dylan Thomas.
During the war, the family moved to London. As Thomas was often sick, he managed to get himself classified Grade III, which meant he’d be among the last to be called up for service. He supplemented income by writing and narrating scripts for the BBC. Poetry began to reflect the situation. “After the first death there is no other,” he wrote in A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London. The Thomases moved back to Wales and traveled by invitation. Patron Margaret Taylor found them a residence in Oxford and then their final home, The Boat House in Laugharne.
New York based, Canadian born poet/critic John Malcolm Brinnin invited Thomas to come do two readings. The Weshman wanted a national tour. He had by this time three children to support. “I can read aloud through sonorous asthma with pomp. I can lecture…” he responded. With no experience, Brinnin took on the responsibility of organizing bookings. He found himself serving as “a reluctant guardian angel, brother’s keeper, nursemaid, amanuensis, and bar companion.” Dylan often had to be peeled off a bar stool or roused from an unfamiliar bed. Brinnin’s Dylan Thomas in America describes his relationship with the poet vividly if darkly. It’s been conjectured that he was in love with his charge.
In New York, Thomas participated in the reading of a draft of Under Milkwood. “To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town/ Starless and bible-black…” begins actor Scott Sedar. Thomas’s lyrical poetry concocts a town based on Laugharne. If you’ve never heard this read aloud or seen a production, you’ve missed something extraordinary. A 1954 recording by Richard Burton can be found here: https://vimeo.com/467812256 or purchased.
Through all his carousing, the poet wrote ardently to Caitlin. Learning about his behavior, she insisted on accompanying him on a second tour; the third he took alone. Coughing and debilitation were worse. He was using an inhaler and suffering blackouts. “I tell myself if I’d only lay off whiskey and stick to beer, I’d be alright, but I never do,” Thomas wrote.
The poet spent the last few weeks of his third tour with Brinnin’s assistant, Liz Reitell, continuing an earlier affair. Concerned with his state, she took him to a doctor who administered cortisone injections. One night, Thomas went to The White Horse Tavern (in Greenwich Village) at 2 a.m. and drank 18 straight whiskies in 90 minutes. (He told his lover and a bartender corroborated this.) The doctor was called.
Thomas was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in a coma. Caitlin arrived the next day. She was allowed 40 minutes with him. Returning drunk in the afternoon she threatened to kill Brinnin and was herself briefly committed. Dylan Thomas died on the 9th of November. Physicians attributed his death to severe lung infection with extensive advanced bronchopneumonia. The doctor who’d given him shots was considered partly culpable. Thomas died intestate (with assets of only one hundred pounds) and is buried in Laugharne.
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Old age should burn and rave at the close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Opening: Dylan Thomas plaque in Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey – Public Domain
Daniel Stashower did his research though more anecdote would’ve brightened this. Unfortunately actor Scott Sedar has not a bit of the lyricism and resonance necessary to get the most out of Thomas.
A wonderful recording of A Child’s Christmas in Wales (and a great gift) on Amazon.
My vote for an entertaining/illuminating book would be Constantine Fitzgibbon’s The Life of Dylan Thomas.
Two good films are: Set Fire to The Stars, 2015, loosely based on Dylan Thomas in America by John Malcolm Brinnin. Directed by Andy Goddard. Co-written and Starring Ceyln Jones. Black and white. Elijah Wood as Brinnin tries to keep Thomas sober during a mostly upstate tour. Focus seems to be on him rather than Thomas, a pity as Jones is very good. What begins as evocative recitation is aborted or drowned out by soundtrack. Script is periodically, irritatingly surreal. Rent on Amazon Prime.
And A Poet in New York 2014 BBC Written by Andrew Davies. Directed by Aisling Walsh. The story of Dylan Thomas’ (Tom Hollander) last trip to New York under a booking arrangement with devoted friend, John Malcolm Brinnin, secretly in love with him (Ewen Bremmer) and nurse-maided by secretary/occasional lover, Liz Reitell (Phoebe Fox). This was the trip when Thomas headed a reading of the just finished Under Milkwood at the 92nd Street Y and eventually drank himself to death at The White Horse Tavern. Splendid production. Shows us his crafty charm without being too sympathetic. Hollander is smaller and less round, but otherwise channels Thomas. Essie Davis is wonderful as Caitlin. Free with Amazon Prime.
Featured photo by Amanda Lewis at iStock by Getty Images. Simple wooden cross marking the grave of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas in Laugharne, South Wales. Cockle shells, coins and sweets have been placed as reminders of his literature.
