Customer Reviews

Dylan Thomas Reads: And Death Shall Have No Dominion, a Winter's Tale, on Reading Poetry Aloud and Other Selections

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Dylan Thomas, in spite of all the hype and misinformation and gossip, still looms larger than almost any other Twentieth Century poet (only Sylvia Plath and e.e. cummings, perhaps, are comparable). And this is all the more amazing when one considers how actually small the total of his output was. To listen to him read his poetry, though, is a profound experience. His reading of "Lament", one of his greatest poems (in my opinion), is riveting. The cadence of his rich voice, with his Welsh accent and sonorous vowels, reveling in the sheer sounds and the multifarious allusions in the meaning, is unforgettable. Now if they can remaster and issue it on CD---! But it's worth suffering the technical crudities of the recording to hear this great poet and equally great reciter.

When you say that a poet is great (eg Wordsworth or Plath or Auden or Frost) you really mean that a handful of poems have stood the test of time since it would be asking too much for any poet's entire output to be excellent. Therefore Dylan Thomas stands head and shoulders above the majority of C20 poets - with the possible exception of Phillip Larkin - and when you add that voice! Unfortunately Thomas had a penchant for obscurity - as here in "Death shall have no dominion". Nevertheless, although he speaks with no trace of a Welsh accent (despite the fact that virtually all his greatest poems were inspired by Wales and that he himself was profoundly Welsh), his readings of his own works are again so far above other poets' rather milk-and-water efforts that any opportunity to hear one of the world's greatest artists should be embraced. Here is one such opportunity. Unique and compelling above all other modern poets. What else can be said?

Listening to Dylan Thomas gives you some idea what he must have been like - on those late nights at the White Horse Tavern. These tapes of Thomas are brilliant.