On the trail of trail-blazing poet

by Gwen Herat in Swansea

‘Swansea is still the best place in the world’..... thus wrote its most famous son. He wrote this to an old friend in 1938 but the residents and the visitors see a different Swansea from what Dylan Thomas grew up in.

Even during his lifetime, the German Luftwaffe’s Three Nights Blitz had bombed the heart of the city leaving it a desolate city which Dylan described movingly in his first radio play, Return Journey broadcast in 1947. Since then the city developed further with modern alterations that prompted Dylan to say ‘My ugly, lovely town is now a city’.

But this city contains a wealth of solid and tangible relics. They remain and remind Dylan’s Swansea which they will remind all to discover. Even today, when I wander through Swansea, it gives me more than a hint of where Dylan was born, where he grew up, worked and played. I have visited Swansea over ten times and it gives me the same joy I derive when I visit Shakespeare’s birthplace at Stratford.

Dylan left Swansea and had a variety of addresses throughout his short nomadic life. He resided in Oxford, Conwall and Ireland. He also resided in Hampshire, London and visited America, Italy and Czechoslovakia as well as Iran. But his first 20 years at Swansea were intensely formative.

Passionately he reacted to the best of the town and against he worst. It was indeed his ‘ugly, lovely town’ but later he described Swansea as ‘marble town city of laughter, little Dublin and screamed triumphantly ‘Never was there such a town’.

Little theatre

The Dylan Thomas trail begins at the Dylan Thomas Centre on the banks of the River Tawe in Swansea. So much like the River Avon upon whose banks rest the Shakespeare heritage. The Centre renamed in 1998, now contains permanent exhibition on the life and work of this great Welsh poet.

Just before Dylan Thomas Square is the Dylan Thomas Theatre, the present home of Swansea’s Little Theatre. Dylan was a member of this group in the early 1930s.

Dylan is depicted gazing across the square in the large and colourful mural which decorates the outside of the theatre and also present as a solid statue, hands on knees, looking out to the sea. The name of Dylan is taken from the Old Welsh folk tales, The Mabinogion and means the ‘son of the wave’. Sculptor, John Doubleday has carved the last lines of Dylan’s famous poem, Fern Hill.

‘Though I sang in my chains like the sea’.

The village was an inspiration and ‘Mumbles a rather nice village, despite its name, right on the edge of the sea’ is yet another quote from the poet. This is how he described the area around Swansea. He lived most of his short life in towns or cities but the countryside, especially Welsh countryside, played an important part in his life.

He met his first serious girl friend, Pamela Hansford Johnson in Swansea and he would write to her describing his nights at Mumbles. At this time, he was a member of the Swansea Little Theatre. Life had become bored and the long evening made him take to drinking which was to ruin him later as he became a habitual drinker.

Genius

He burst into fame with Under Milk Wood and as it hit the boards, especially with Dylan Thomas’ portrayal as the Rev. Ell Jenkins, Wales had discovered their own Shakespeare, a genius of a poet.

It was in Fishguard, the sea town where Andrew Sinclair made his film version of Under Milk Wood with world famous film stars such as Richard Burton (a Welsh) Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Tool and the cream of Welsh actors.

His hideaway was the Boathouse where he wrote most of his famous plays and poems. He was so thrilled with the Boathosue that he wrote to his benefactor, Margaret Taylor that this was his work room and this was where the world would discover the poet in Dylan Thomas.

The Boathouse with its estuary location, cliff top writing shed and idyllic views, was a good home for any poet. This too is a great attraction to visitors who have to travel on the cliff top path to reach it.

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was born at Comdonkin Drive in Uplands in the ‘ugly lovely town of Swansea’ at its sweeping bay. His mother, Florence Williams came from St. Thomas, east of Swansea and his father, David John Thomas from Johstan Town in Carmarthen.

He was a senior English teacher at Swansea Grammar School on Mount Pleasant Hill, Dylan had already started to write when he was a student at the Grammar School. Four notebooks written as a school boy in verses was a source for poetry published during 1930s.

Marriage

After a short spell as a reporter with the South Wales Daily Post, Dylan moved to London. He shared a room with Alfred Janes, a Swansea painter. He published his first three books on poetry, ie 18 Poems (1834) 25 Poems (1936) and the Map of Love (1929).

In London he came into high praise for the musical quality and language of his work. He was compared with Webster and Donne. Though Dylan was committed to the craft of writing he made a fortune on his broadcasting.

Around 1936, painter Augustus John introduced Dylan to Caitlin Macnamara and in the following year, he married her and lived in a number of homes in London, Oxford and Laugharne on the coast near Carmarthen.

They had two sons, Llewllyn and Colm and a daughter, Aeronwy. Dylan’s adult life and marriage were tempestuous as he drank heavily from time to time and indulging in bouts of wild and erratic behaviour. It was a strange contrast to the sensitivity. Apart from being a drunk, he was a heavy smoker too.

Dylan wrote with passion. He wrote loads that cannot be mentioned off hand. He wrote as though he was possessed. Among his many visits to America, he published his Collected Poems 1934-1952 for which he was awarded the prestigious Folyle’s Literary Prize.

By this time, Dylan was regarded as the greatest living lyric poet. He had planned to collaborate on a work with the composer Stravinsky but it never happened.

He died on 9 November 1953 in a New York Hospital after a bout of excessive drinks when he was just 39 years old. His body was brought to Wales and was buried in St. Martin’s churchyard, Laugharne.

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