Dylan Thomas

Description

Dylan Thomas (1914-53) was born in Swansea and won wide acclaim for his often declamatory and rhetorical work of the 1940s, which included "Deaths and Entrances" (1946). He died from alcoholism shortly before the airing of his most famous work, "Under Milk Wood" (1954). Derek Mahon was born in Belfast in 1941, studied at Trinity College Dublin, and the Sorbonne, and has held journalistic and academic appointments in London and New York. A member of Aosdana, he has received numerous awards including the Irish Academy of Letters Award and the Scott Montcrieff translation prize. His "Collected Poems" was published in 1999. In the "Poet to Poet" series, a contemporary poet advocates a poet of the past or present whom they have particularly admired. By their selection of verses and their critical reactions, the selectors offer intriguing insights into their own work. Here, Derek Mahon selects Dylan Thomas.

Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea on 27 October 1914, the son of a senior English master. On leaving school he worked on the South Wales Evening Post before embarking on his literary career in London. Not only a poet, he wrote short stories, film scripts, features and radio plays, the most famous being Under Milk Wood. On 9 November 1953, shortly after his thirty-ninth birthday, he collapsed and died in New York city. He is buried in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, which had become his main home since 1949. In 1982 a memorial stone to commemorate him was unveiled in 'Poet's Corner' in Westminster Abbey.