1934
Wins the Book Prize of the “Poet’s Corner” sponsored by Sunday Referee.
In October, he and Glyn Jones visit Caradoc Evans in Aberystwyth.
Moves to London in November.
His first book, 18 Poems (Sunday Referee), is published in December.
1935
Begins a correspondence with Vernon Watkins that leads to their friendship.
1936
Introduced to Caitlin Macnamara by Augustus John in April.
In September, Twenty-five Poems (J. M. Dent) is published.
1937
The first of his one hundred forty-seven radio broadcasts airs on the BBC in April.
Marries Caitlin Macnamara in Penzance on July 11.
1938
The Thomases move to Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales.
1939
Son Llewelyn Edouard Thomas is born January 30th in Hampshire.
The Map of Love (Dent) is published in August.
The World I Breathe (New Directions) is published in December.
1940
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (Dent and New Directions) is published.
Leaves Laugharne for the summer.
Hired as a script writer by the Strand Film Company.
1942
Moves with Caidin and Llewelyn to live in London.
1943
New Poems (New Directions) is published in February.
Daughter Aeronwy Bryn Thomas is born March 3rd in London.
1944
Family moves to New Quay, Cardiganshire, Wales in September.
1945
In the summer the family moves back to London.
1946
Deaths and Entrances (Dent) is published in February.
Selected Writings (New Directions) is published in November.
1947
Visits Italy with his family from April through August.
Family moves to South Leigh, Oxfordshire, England in September.
1948
Begins writing first of three feature films for Gainsborough Pictures.
1949
Visits Prague as a guest of the Czechoslovakian Government in March.
Family moves into the Boat House in Laugharne in May.
Also in May, receives first invitation from John Malcolm Brinnin to read in New York City.
Son Colm Goran Hart Thomas is born on July 24 at Carmarthen.
1950
Goes on first reading tour of the United States from Febru ary 21 through May 31.
Twenty-six poems (Dent and New Directions) is published
1951
Writes a film script in Iran for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company during January.
1952
Brings Caidin along on a second reading tour of the United States from January 20 through May 16.
In Country Sleep (New Directions) is published in February.
Makes first recording for Caedmon Records in New York City in February.
Collected Poems 1934-1952 (Dent) is published in November.
His father, D. J. Thomas, dies on December 16 at the age of 76.
1953
Collected Poems 1934–1953 (New Directions) is published in March.
His sister, Nancy Mariais Thomas Summersby, dies on April 16 in Bombay, India.
April 21 through June 3, travels on third reading tour of the United States.
The Doctor and the Devils (Dent) is published in May.
Under Milk Wood premieres May 14 at the Poetry Center of the YMHA, New York City, with Thomas directing and reading four of the parts.
Also in May, meets with Igor Stravinsky in Boston to discuss plans for their collaboration on a never-to-be-realized opera.
Fourth reading tour of the United States begins October 18.
Collapses and falls into a coma at the Chelsea Hotel, New York City, on November 5.
Dies at St. Vincent’s Hospital, New York City, on November 9.
Buried in the graveyard of St. Martin’s Church, Laugharne, on November 24.
1954
Caitlin Thomas moves to Italy and London, living on and off in both places until she moves to Italy permanently in 1957.
1957
Caitlin’s Leftover Life to Kill is published in Great Britain (Putnam) and the United States (Little, Brown).
1958
Thomas’s mother Florence dies at Port Talbot, Wales in July at the age of 76.
1963
Caitlin’s Not Quite Posthumous Letter to My Daughter is published in Great Britain (Putnam) and the United States (Little, Brown).
1994
Caitlin Thomas dies in Catania, Sicily on July 31 at the age of 81.
2000
Llewelyn Thomas dies on November 13 at the age of 61.
INDEX OF Title AND First Lines
A grief ago 59
A grief ago, 59
A process in the weather of the heart 6
A process in the weather of the heart 6
A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London 106
A saint about to fall 100
A saint about to fall, 100
A stranger has come 113
A Winter’s Tale 125
After the funeral 92
After the funeral, mule praises, brays, 92
All all and all the dry worlds lever 35
All all and all the dry worlds lever, 35
Altarwise by owl-light 76
Altarwise by owl-light in the halfway-house 76
Always when he, in country heaven, 196
Among those Killed in the Dawn Raid was a Man Aged a Hundred 146
And death shall have no dominion 73
And death shall have no dominion. 73
Ballad of the Long-legged Bait 160
Because the pleasure-bird whistles 82
Because the pleasure-bird whisdes after the hot wires, 82
Before I knocked 7
Before I knocked and flesh let enter, 7
Ceremony After a Fire Raid 137
Deaths and Entrances 123
Do not go gentle into that good night 122
Do not go gende into that good night, 122
Do you not father me 50
Do you not father me, nor the erected arm 50
Ears in the turrets hear 63
Ears in the turrets hear 63
Elegy 192
Especially when the October wind 16
Especially when the October wind 16
Fern Hill 170
Find meat on bones 70
‘Find meat on bones that soon have none, 70
Foster the light 65
Foster the light nor veil the manshaped moon, 65
Friend by enemy I call you out. 112
From love’s first fever to her plague 21
From love’s first fever to her plague, from the soft second 21
Grief thief of time 72
Grief thief of time crawls off, 72
Half of the fellow father as he doubles 32
Here in this spring 49
Here in this spring, stars float along the void; 49
Hold hard, these ancient minutes in the cuckoo’s month 54
Hold hard, these ancient minutes in the cuckoo’s month, 54
Holy Spring 169
How shall my animal 96
How shall my animal 96
How soon the servant sun 61
How soon the servant sun 61
I dreamed my genesis 30
I dreamed my genesis in sweat of sleep, breaking 30
I fellowed sleep 28
I fellowed sleep who kissed me in the brain, 28
I have longed to move away 69
I have longed to move away 69
I make this in a warring absence 83
I make this in a warring absence when 83
I see the boys of summer 1
I see the boys of summer in their ruin 1
I, in my intricate image 37
I, in my intricate image, stride on two levels, 37
If I were tickled by the rub of love 12
If I were tickled by the rub of love, 12
‘If my head hurt a hair’s foot’ 102
‘If my head hurt a hair’s foot 102
In Country Heaven 196
In Country Sleep 173
In my craft or sullen art 136
In my craft or sullen art 136
In the beginning 24
In the beginning was the three-pointed star, 24
In the mustardseed sun, 182
In the white giant’s thigh 189
Incarnate devil 43
Incarnate devil in a talking snake, 43
Into her lying down head 119
Into her lying down head 119
It is a winter’s tale 125
It is the sinners’ dust-tongued bell 88
It is the sinners’ dust-tongued bell claps me to churches 88
It was my thirtieth year to heaven 107
Lament 186
Lie still, sleep becalmed 147
Lie still, sleep becalmed, sufferer with the wound 147
Light breaks where no sun shines 26
Light breaks where no sun shines; 26
Love in the Asylum 113
My hero bares his nerves 10
My hero bares his nerves along my wrist 10
My world is pyramid 3 2
Myselves [/ The grievers/ Grieve] 137
Never and never, my girl riding far and near 173
Never until the mankind making 106
Not from this anger 95
Not from this anger, anticlimax after 95
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs 170
Now 56
Now [/ Say nay,/ Man dry man,] 56
O make me a mask 90
O make me a mask and a wall to shut from your spies 90
O [/Out of a bed of love] 169
On a Wedding Anniversary 132
On almost the incendiary eve 123
On no work of words 99
On no work of words now for three lean months in the bloody 99
On the Marriage of a Virgin 135
Once below a time 141
Once below a time, 141
Once it was the colour of saying 94
Once it was the colour of saying 94
Our eunuch dreams 14
Our eunuch dreams, all seedless in the light, 14
Out of the sighs 52
Out of the sighs a little comes, 52
Over Sir John’s hill 179
Over Sir John’s hill, 179
Poem in October 107
Poem on His birthday 182
Prologue xxi
Shall gods be said to thump the clouds 48
Shall gods be said to thump the clouds 48
Should lanterns shine 68
Should lanterns shine, the holy face, 68
The bows glided down, and the coast 160
The conversation of prayers 105
The conversation of prayers about to be said 105
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower 9
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower 9
The hand that signed the paper 67
The hand that signed the paper felled a city; 67
The hunchback in the park 117
The hunchback in the park 117
The seed-at-zero 45
The seed-at-zero shall not storm 45
The sky is torn across 132
The spire cranes 91
The spire cranes. Its statue is an aviary. 91
The tombstone told when she died 98
The tombstone told when she died. 98
Then was my neophyte 74
Then was my neophyte, 74
There was a saviour 133
There was a saviour 133
This bread I break 42
This bread I break was once the oat, 42
This day winding down now xxi
This side of the truth 110
This side of the truth, 110
Through throats where many rivers meet, the curlews cry, 189
Today, this insect 44
Today, this insect, and the world I breathe, 44
Too proud to die; broken and blind he died 192
Twenty-four years 104
Twenty-four years remind the tears of my eyes. 104
Unluckily for a death 114
Unluckily for a death 114
Vision and Prayer 148
Waking alone in a multitude of loves when morning’s light 135
Was there a time 55
Was there a time when dancers with their fiddles 55
We lying by seasand 87
We lying by seasand, watching yellow 87
When all my five and country senses see 86
When all my five and country senses see, 86
When I was a windy boy and a bit 186
When I woke 144
When I woke, the town spoke. 144
When once the twilight locks no longer 4
When once the twilight locks no longer 4
When the morning was waking over the war 146
When, like a running grave 18
When, like a running grave, time tracks you down, 18
Where once the waters of your face 11
Where once the waters of your face 11
Who [/ Are you/ Who is born] 148
Why east wind chills 58
Why east wind chills and south wind cools 58
BOOKS BY DYLAN THOMAS
FROM NEW DIRECTIONS
Adventures in the Skin Trade
and Other Stories
A Child’s Christmas in Wales,
illustrated by Ellen Raskin
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas,
Original Edition
Collected Stories
The Doctor and the Devils
and Other Scripts
Eight Stories
On the Air with Dylan Thomas
The Poems of Dylan Thomas
with a CD of the poet reading his work
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
Quite Early One Mornig
Rebecca’s Daughters
and Other Film Scripts
Under Milk Wood, a Play for Voices
Copyright© 1952, 1953 by Dylan Thomas
Copyright © 1937, 1955, 1956, 1957 by the Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas
Copyright© 1938,1939,1943,1946,2003 by New Directions Publishing Corporation
Introduction copyright © 2010 by Paul Muldoon
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
The following poems first appeared in the magazine Poetry: “We lying by seasand,” “When all my five and country senses see,” “O make me a mask,” “Not from this anger,” “The spire cranes,” “Her tombstone told when she died,” “Poem in October,” and “A Winter’s Tale.”
First published clothbound as The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas 1934 -1953 in 1953; revised edition, 1956; first published as New Directions Paperbook 316 in 1971. A revised edition with the title Dylan Thomas Selected Poems 1954-1952 was published in 2003. This reissue, retitled The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas: Original Edition (with a new introduction by Paul Muldoon, ndpi 170), was published in 2010.
Frontispiece photograph by Marion Morehouse
Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Limited
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953.
[Poems]
Collected poems / Dylan Thomas; introduction by Paul Muldoon
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN 978-0-8112-2308-9
I. Title.
PR6039.H52A17 2010
821’.912 —DC22
2009050058
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin
by New Directions Publishing Corporation
80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011