The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Thomas, Dylan Marlais
Thomas, Dylan
Marlais
(
1914
–
53
), poet, born in Swansea, the son of the English master at Swansea Grammar School, where he himself was educated; he knew no Welsh. He began to write poetry while still at school, and worked in Swansea as a journalist before moving to London in
1934
; his first volume of verse, 18 Poems, appeared in the same year. He then embarked on a Grub Street career of journalism, broadcasting, and film-making, spending much time in the flourishing afternoon drinking clubs of the era, and rapidly acquiring a reputation for exuberance and flamboyance, as both poet and personality. In
1937
he married
Caitlin
Macnamara
; they settled for a while at Laugharne in Wales, returning there permanently after many wanderings in
1949
. Despite some allegations of deliberate obscurity,
Thomas's
romantic, affirmative, rhetorical style gradually won a large following; it was both new and influential (and much...
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