dylan marla** thomas(october 27,1914 – november 9,1953)was a welsh poet and writer.
dylan thomas was born in the coastal city of swansea,wales.h** father d**id,who was a writer and possessed a degree in brought h** son up to speak rather than thomas's mother's,florence hannah thomas,native language,welsh.he had one s**ter,nancy,who was nine years older than him.h** middle name,"marla**",came from the bardic name of h** uncle,the unitarian min**ter gwilym marles(whose real name was william thomas).thomas was unable to actively fight in world war ii because he was considered too frail,however he still served the war effort by writing scripts for ** propaganda.
he attended the boys-only swansea grammar school,in the mount pleasant d**trict of the city,where h** father taught literature.it was in the school's magazine that thomas saw h** first poem publ**hed.he left school at age 16 to become a reporter for a year and a half.
thomas's childhood was spent largely in swansea,with regular summer trips to v**it h** mother's family on their carmarthen farm.these rural sojourns,and their contrast with the town life of swansea,provided substance for much of h** work,notably many short stories and radio essays and the poem fern hill.
thomas wrote half h** poems and many short stories when he lived at the family home at 5 cwmdonkin drive;and death shall h**e no dominion ** one of the best known works written at th** address.h** highly acclaimed[1]first poetry volume,18 poems,was publ**hed in november 1934.the publication of deaths and entrances in 1946 was a major turning point[2][3][4]in h** career,with widespread recognition that a great poet had indeed emerged.thomas"became a very successful orator.was extremely well-known during h** life for being a versatile and dynamic speaker and he was best known for h** poetry readings."[5]h** immensely striking and powerful voice would captivate american audiences during h** speaking tours of the early 1950s.he made over two hundred broadcasts for the bbc.
dylan thomas met h** wife caitlin and"the love affair started in a fitzrovia pub in the spring of 1936.a young ir**h dancer called caitlin macnamara sat on a stool at the bar:blonde,blue-eyed and drinking gin.to the drunken welsh poet who staggered towards her through the smokey fug of the wheatsheaf,she appeared an angelic beauty.and when finally the poet reached her,eccentrically laying h** head in her lap,he mumbled a proposal of marriage.th** unorthodox first encounter between dylan thomas and h** wife ** a central part of the bohemian mythology that surrounds the memory of one of britain's best loved creative talents."[6]
in 1937,thomas married macnamara and would h**e three children with her,although the marriage was tempestuous.there were affairs and rumours of affairs on both sides;caitlin had an affair with augustus john before,and quite possibly after,she married thomas.in january of 1939 came the birth of their first child,a boy whom they named llewelyn(died in 2000).he was followed in march of 1943 by a daughter,aeronwy.a second son and third child,colum garan,was born in july 1949.
thomas liked to boast about h** drinking.he was known to comment,"an alcoholic ** someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do."[7]during an incident on november 3,1953,thomas returned to the chelsea hotel in new york and exclaimed"i've had 18 straight wh**kies;i think th** ** a record.
he collapsed on november 9,1953 at the white horse t**ern,in greenwich village,manhattan after drinking he**ily while on a promotional speaking tour;thomas later died at st.vincent's hospital.the primary cause of h** death ** recorded as pneumonia,with pressure on the brain and a fatty liver given as contributing factors.h** last words,according to jack heliker,were:"after 39 years,th** ** all i've done."following h** death,h** body was brought back to wales for burial in the village churchyard at laugharne.h** wife,caitlin,died in 1994,and was buried alongside him.it ** said that mr.thomas's f**orite drink was the wh**key sour,which,on several occasions,he referred to as"jolly good nosh,th**.
as would be expected of a famous poet whose best known line **"do not go gentle into that good night",many memorials h**e been constructed or converted to honour thomas.tour**ts in h** home town of swansea can v**it a statue in the maritime quarter,the dylan thomas theatre,and the dylan thomas centre,formerly the town's guildhall.the latter ** now a literature centre,where exhibitions and lectures are held and ** the setting for the city's annual dylan thomas festival.another monument to thomas stands in cwmdonkin park,one of h** f**ourite childhood haunts,close to h** birthplace at 5 cwmdonkin drive.the memorial ** inscribed with the closing lines from one of h** best-loved poems,fern hill:"oh as i was young and easy in the mercy of h** means/time held me green and dying/though i sang in my chains like the sea."[11]th** ** inscribed on a rock in a closed-off garden within the park.thomas's home in laugharne,the boat house,** also a memorial.the powerful coolmore stud h**e a colt(horse)called dylan thomas which won the ir**h derby on the 2nd july 2006.
several of the pubs in swansea also h**e associations with the poet.one of swansea's oldest pubs,the no sign bar,was a regular haunt,renamed the wine vaults in h** story the followers.
in 2004 a new literary prize,the dylan thomas prize,[12]was created in honour of the poet.it ** awarded to the best publ**hed writer in under the age of 30.
h** obituary was written by h** long term friend vernon watkins.
a class 153 locomotive was named dylan thomas 1914-1953.
igor str**insky wrote in memoriam dylan thomas:dirge canons and song(1954)for tenor voice,string quartet,and four trombones,based on"do not go gentle".
a song by a welsh rock band,the rambones,pays tribute to thomas in the final line,as they sing,"i choose to go gentle,but i prom**e/it's with no offense to dylan thomas".
the cover of the beatles album sgt.pepper's lonely hearts club band contains a photograph of dylan thomas.
alternative rock band the slip make a reference to the poet in their 2006 song,"airplane/primitive"from the album e**enhower:"it ** the day before the rest of my life/and i feel like dylan thomas".
musician ben taylor named h** 2003 album"famous among the barns"as tribute to dylan thomas.
in the simon&garfunkel song"a simple desultory philippic"they sing ironically:"he doesn't dig poetry.he's so unhip that/when you say dylan,he thinks you're talking about dylan thomas,/whoever he was".