More Dylan Thomas / Catch-up class

Here's a link to the BBC Wales website's pages on Dylan Thomas. There are  interviews, introductions to some of his other poems, and various other material you might find interesting and/or useful, including a series of links to other good websites on Thomas.

I've also created a doodle poll to decide when next week we will hold the catch-up class. Please enter your details by Friday morning, and I'll then email everyone Friday afternoon to let you know when the class will take place.

Classroom mix-ups and course reading: Dylan Thomas

Sorry for having had to cancel today's class - the room we were supposed to be in has been mysteriously transformed into a computer lab, and apparently there wasn't another classroom free in the whole building. I will try to arrange a time for a catch-up lecture, hopefully before the end of the week. As soon as I know something, I'll put it here.

In the meantime, you should start to read Dylan Thomas. We will be focusing on the following poems: 'If I Were Tickled By The Rub Of Love' (a poem we should have read together on Valentine's Day!); ‘A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London’; 'Fern Hill'; and 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'. There should be enough in these poems to keep you busy, but if you want to explore more of Thomas's work, his Collected Poems 1934-1952 and his radio play Under Milk Wood are available for free download from Project Gutenberg Australia: follow this link or simply go to the home page and search for ‘Dylan Thomas’.

Have a look too at the readings and the documentary I posted in my last blog entry. Here is a link to Dylan Thomas reading 'Fern Hill' - now you have his recordings of all the poems we will focus upon.

Though lovers be lost love shall not...

Three of Dylan Thomas's greatest poems are about the battle with death and the possibility of overcoming it. Here they are, read by the man himself: 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night', 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion', and 'A Refusal To Mourn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London'.

I also found a good documentary on Dylan Thomas, made by the BBC and broadcast in 2003. You can watch the whole thing on youtube. Here's a link to the first part. The first three minutes you might find difficult to follow - there's some mumbling, and some strong Welsh accents! - but it gets easier after that. It also includes some of Thomas's best readings of his poems.

Another great Welshman, Anthony Hopkins (you might know him better as Hannibal Lector) has also recorded readings of several Thomas poems. Here he is reading 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'. You can easily find other readings by him.

You can find the texts of these and other poems by Dylan Thomas all over the web - here's one site worth looking at.