Poems in October
Shakespeare, Keats and Dylan Thomas wrote, in Sonnet 73, To Autumn and Poem in October respectively, not about a season but about death. When poets write about one thing, they … Continue reading
Singing in chains
‘In spite of the danger of becoming the centre of a cult, Mr. Thomas has developed in his own way, exploring with vigour and originality his elemental, almost racial, emotions … Continue reading
On the origin of Dylan Thomas
I awoke in the midsummer not to call night, in the white and walk of the morning. Dylan Thomas has such a distinctive voice that we assume he was born … Continue reading
Fern Hill
‘Fern Hill’ is a kind of tone poem, a musical form reclaimed for literature by Dylan Thomas. In six stanzas, he evokes the innocence and wonder of childhood and sets … Continue reading
Two poems
Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, or to give it its full title, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, July 13, … Continue reading
A Reader’s Diary, 20 November 2013
Chris Campbell has done a better job of translating Molière’s Tartuffe than I did when, a long time ago, it was one of my set books for A level French. … Continue reading
The first modern English poem
THE LOVER SHEWETH HOW HE IS FORSAKEN OF SUCH AS HE SOMTIME ENJOYED This poem by Sir Thomas Wyatt, written a few years before his death in 1542, is the … Continue reading
