Author Description

Although the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was to some degree a participant in the neo-romantic poetic movement of the 1940s, his energetic verse embodies a timeless vision. Thomas's popular and critically acclaimed poems, collected in such volumes as 18 Poems (1934), Twenty-five Poems (1936), and Deaths and Entrances (1946), are embraced by readers for their intensity, complexity, and rich romanticism. In their unique rhetorical constructions, unusual imagery, and exploration of universal themes, the poems reflect Thomas's complex artistic method and his original perspective on nature, time, death, and spirituality. In his update of his 1965 study, Jacob Korg incorporates the many significant discoveries regarding Thomas's life that have been made since the first edition. Korg argues that Thomas's poetry is essentially concerned with his personal version of the Christian myth and explicates Thomas's complicated rhetorical schemes in such poems as "Fern Hill," "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," and "The Force That through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower." Korg also includes analysis of Thomas's work in other genres, including the essay A Child's Christmas in Wales and the radio play Under Milk Wood. The study includes discussion of the recently published film scripts and draft manuscripts and gives an account of the continuous expansion of Thomas scholarship.