Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet. His poetry is notable for its tendency towards obscurity, its gothic, surreal tone and its rhythmic, infectious cadence. His most famous poem is the Trope Namer for Do Not Go Gentle.
His books available today include...
- Collected Poems: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night: Thomas's most famous poem, written as his father slowly died of illness.
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog: Following the model of James Joyce's Dubliners with its title an obvious homage to Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (although Thomas insisted he never read a word of Joyce), this autobiographical collection of short stories tracks an Author Avatar as he navigates the turmoil of adolescence and disappointment.
- Quite Early One Morning: A posthumous collection of fictions, interviews and criticisms. Includes what is arguably his greatest story, "A Child's Christmas in Wales".
- Under Milk Wood: A humorous play for voices which follows the thoughts and actions of the inhabitants of a coastal Welsh village.
- Adventures in the Skin Trade: A slightly surreal novella about a young man trying to become a publisher in Cardiff.
- Rebecca's Daughters: A radio play about the eponymous criminal group.
His work gives examples of the following tropes...
- The Alcoholic: A case of Write What You Know, as he was a very heavy drinker. The exact circumstances of his death in New York at the age of 39 are unclear note — but if alcohol consumption wasn't the primary cause, it was a huge contributing factor.
- Death of a Child: A handful of his poems ("A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" and "The Conversation of Prayer", to name a couple) deal with dead children.
- Growing Up Sucks: "Fern Hill" is about how his memories of a happy summer at the title farm have been spoiled by an adult's awareness that time was going to take it all away.
- Religious Horror: Much of his poetry is grotesque, an effect he achieved by juxtaposing religious imagery with descriptions of filth and decay.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.