Entry 1 Famous British poets and writers

II.Main part
2.1. Dylan Thomas and his biography
One of the best-known poets of the twentieth century, Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 in Swansea, a small industrial city on the southern coast of Wales, one of the countries of Great Britain. Thomas's father, a school teacher, gave him the name "Dylan" after the name of a sea god in Celtic mythology, little knowing that the poet's eventual fame would help make this name such a popular one today. Thomas's father also gave the poet an early awareness of the native Welsh traditions, as well as the classics of English literature.
As a boy, Thomas was athletic and impressionable, and spent much of his time outdoors. He loved visiting the beautiful seaside near Swansea and staying during summer vacations at a relative's farm, a scene that inspired one of Thomas's most famous poems, "Fern Hill." The imagery of the Welsh countryside and coasts reappears throughout Thomas's poetry.

Thomas was a very precocious poet. His earliest recorded poem, a humorous piece entitled, "The Song of the Mischievous Dog," was composed when Thomas was just eleven years old. As a teenager, Thomas kept on writing, and once claimed that he had "innumerable exercise books full of poems." Leaving high school at sixteen, Thomas went to work as a reporter for a local newspaper, the South Wales Evening Post. Unhappy with this occupation, Thomas moved to London where he was finally discovered as a poet when he won a poetry contest. But Thomas's early poems in his notebooks were not empty exercises: in later years, Thomas kept returning to these poems, collecting and reworking many of them for inclusion in later publications.

Thomas's first book of poems was published in 1934 when Thomas was twenty years old. Thomas went on to publish three more books of poetry, as well as a final collection of his poems near the end of his life. It turned out that Thomas was gifted in other kinds of writing too: he wrote short stories, some of which are collected in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog; a radio play, Under Milk Wood; and various scripts, lectures, and talks. Among these prose writings is Thomas's story, A Child's Christmas in Wales, a beloved childhood remembrance of the holiday season.


After beginning his literary career in London, in 1938 Thomas moved back to Wales where he spent most of the remainder of his life. Here Thomas, who had married Caitlin MacNamara in 1937, had three children. His home in Wales was now the small seaside village of Laugharne (pronounced "larn") on the river Towy (pronounced "toe-ee"). Thomas's home, called the Boat House, was located right on the estuary of the Towy, and if you visit Wales you can see this same house preserved as it was, including the small potting shed that Thomas used for writing his poems. There you can look out the same window with its beautiful view of the water and the sea birds.

As Thomas became more and more popular, he was invited to come to the United States to give readings and talks. Those who attended these recitations recall the intense voice that Thomas used for reading his own poems, as well as reading poems by others. Some of these readings were recorded and, if you listen to them, you will hear the song-like quality of Thomas's voice, which some called the voice of a "wild Welsh bard" (bard is an old word for poet). However, several years of the reading tours began to take their toll. After a heavy bout of drinking, Thomas died in New York in 1953. He was only thirty-nine years old. His body was returned to Laugharne to be buried.

Although his life was short, Thomas made a deep impression on those who knew him or who read his poems, or who heard them read by the poet. Although he was born just as the modern age of literary culture was beginning, Thomas wrote poetry which often used traditional forms of rhythm, rhyme, and meter, and this seemed to represent a welcome return to an earlier and happier form of literature. Thomas was also one of the modern writers who helped return English poetry to its roots in its own language. Rather than choosing long words derived from foreign languages, Thomas preferred to impress readers with strong, short words from native English. But what Dylan Thomas will be remembered for most of all are his many poems which insist that life will carry on from generation to generation, all with the same vigor as before.

Thomas wrote one of his more famous poems, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Dylan Thomas was a celebrated poet and writer born to Welsh parents in Swansea. Although he wrote entirely in English, his works were mostly rooted in the geographical area of his homeland, Wales. He was never a good student though he was extremely intelligent. From his school teacher father, he derived his intellectual as well as literary flair while his temperament was inheritedfrom his mother, who also inducted in him immense respect for his Celtic heritage. His first book of poems was published when he was still in his teens and by the time he was twenty, he had become an acclaimed poet. Later he started writing prose as well, which also earned him great praise. Unfortunately, he also developed a drinking problem while he was in his early twenties and as a result, he had to endure financial problems all through his life. It also ruined his health and he died at the age of thirty-nine from pneumonia brought on by excess dinking.
His mother, Florence Hannah, was a seamstress and his father, David John Thomas, was a teacher. Thomas had one sibling, Nancy, who was eight years older than he was. Due to the fact that Thomas’ father was a teacher, and had received a first-class honors degree from University College, Aberystwyth, the children were made to learn both Welsh and English. The Thomas children were raised in a respectable area of town and would often travel out to the countryside to visit with extended family. Scenes from the country would appear throughout Thomas’ later poetry.
Thomas was first sent to a private school called, Mrs. Hole’s dame school. It was very near to his home and Thomas considered the experience to have been a pleasant one. He was later enrolled at Swansea Grammar School for boys in Mount Pleasant. It was here that his father taught English. His teachers did not consider him to a pupil of much merit, although one of his poems was published in the school’s magazine during his first year as a student.
In 1931, Thomas left school to become a reporter for the South Wales Daily Post. He only worked here for a short time before leaving 18 months later. He would work as a freelance journalist over the following years and start to amass a large collection of poems. They would eventually number in the 200s. Over half the poems he would go on to publish throughout his career was written during this time.
Thomas’ most famous poems were published while he was still quite young. These included, ‘And death shall have no dominion’ as well as ‘The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower’ and ‘Before I Knocked.’ Another work, ‘Light breaks where no sun shines,’ was published in The Listener in 1934. It brought Thomas to the attention of some of the greatest literary figures of the day, one of which was T.S. Eliot. Thomas was contacted by a publisher and his first collection, 18 Poems, was published in 1934. It was subject to great critical acclaim. He won the 1934 Poet’s Corner Prize.
Two years later, in 1936, Twenty Five Poems was published. It was during this same time period that Thomas met dancer Caitlin Macnamara. They were married in 1937 and moved to Wales a year later. They lived in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire when their first child, Llewelyn Edouard was born in 1939. This was the same year that Thomas’s third collection, The Map of Love, was published.
His next book was a collection of short stories titled, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. These tales were based on real-life romances set in Wales. This collection, as well as The Map of Love, which featured more fantastical stories, sold poorly. Thomas was borrowing money from his friends and family but was forced to leave Laugharne in July of 1940 to escape creditors.
In 1941, Thomas and his wife moved to London where he hoped to find more work. He eventually found employment with Strand Films. These years also saw Thomas embark on a number of extramarital affairs, such as that with Pamela Glendower. In 1943, Glendower gave birth to a daughter, Aeronwy.
Thomas had taken a break from writing poetry but resumed after fleeing London to live in a cottage in Llangain. Here he wrote the poems ‘Holy Spring’ and ‘Vision and Prayer.’ Although Thomas had found some success as a poet, his work was not bringing in money. He eventually had to go to work for the BBC as a film scriptwriter. Although he was able to pursue this work during the years of World War II, he still did not have enough money to support his family.
In 1946 Thomas published Death and Entrances. This work is often considered to be the one that truly solidified his career. It was also during this time period that Thomas began broadcasting with the BBC. He became a familiar and well-loved radio personality. Despite the successes, Thomas was turning more and more to alcohol and the family still did not have enough money to live.
They moved to their final home, after a brief stint of homelessness, in April of 1949. It was here that Caitlin gave birth to their third child, Colm. In the early 50s, Thomas was invited on a tour of New York. He spent time on campuses, lecturing in front of large audiences, and drinking heavily at the various parties he was invited to. Thomas briefly returned to London, then traveled to Iran, intent on creating a film about the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. This work never came to fruition.
In 1952 he went once more to America. This time Caitlin accompanied him and they drank together. Thomas was suffering from gout as well as increased problems with his lungs. The third tour of America began the following year, but in October he began to feel increasingly unwell. His condition deteriorated over the next month and Thomas died on November 9, 1953, at thirty-nine years old.
2.2 Life and works of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was born on October 27, 1914, in Swansea, Wales. When he was around 16 years old, he began copying his early poems into what would become known as his notebooks—a practice that continued until 1934, and contributed to several of his first collections (beginning with 18 Poems, published in 1934).

In 1931, at the age of 16, Thomas left school to become a junior reporter at the South Wales Daily Post. His position with the Post didn't last long, though, as he quit in December 1932 and turned his attention away from journalism and back to poetry, now a full-time pursuit. Remarkably, about two-thirds of Thomas' oeuvre is from his late teens.
Thomas soon found success. His poem "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" was published in 1933 in the New English Weekly, marking his first international publication. The event sent Thomas to England in the summer of 1933 to meet with editors of various English literary magazines. He moved to London shortly thereafter and stayed for 10 years.
The following year, Thomas saw his work appear for the first time in book form: "Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines" was published as an entry in The Year's Poetry in the spring of 1934, and his first collection, 18 Poems, was published that December. His first published efforts brought Thomas critical praise and honors, including the 1934 Poet's Corner Prize. 18 Poems drew heavily from the notebooks of collected poems that Thomas wrote as a youth, and it would set off a string of notebook-inspired works such as Twenty Five Poems (1936), The Map of Love (1939) and Deaths and Entrances (1946). This period also marked the beginning of the poet's lifelong struggle with alcohol abuse. Thomas' star rose in the literary world, and his path was unique. Unlike other popular poets of his day, he shied away from tackling intellectual and social issues, instead producing work reminiscent of the Romantic period, with an emotionally charged lyrical approach.
Thomas married Caitlin Macnamara in 1937, and the couple went on to have two sons and a daughter. However, while his fame was rising in literary circles, his business sense was lacking, so he and his family lived in relative poverty. To support his family, Thomas worked for the BBC and as a film scriptwriter during World War II (he was exempted from fighting due to a lung condition), but he continued to struggle financially—unable even to keep up with the taxes that he owed.
Thomas began doing reading tours to bring in income, and his readings were more like flamboyant performances than staid poetic events. He toured the United States four times, with his last appearance taking place at the City College of New York in October 1953. A few days later, after a long drinking bout at Manhattan's White Horse Tavern, Thomas collapsed at the Chelsea Hotel. He died in a New York City hospital not long after, on November 9, 1953, at the age of 39. Three causes of death were given during Thomas's postmortem examination: pneumonia, swelling of the brain and a fatty liver.