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A great poem - for the centenary of Dylan's birth (October 27, 1914, Uplands, Swansea, Wales)
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light".
I still prefer the Richard Burton rendering
Anthony Hopkins
Cerys Matthews
Stravinsky, In Memoriam Dylan Thomas
As a counterpoint:
Fixin' to die
Bukka White original
Dylan Thomas and Corfu (from a Dylan Thomas letter to Lawrence Durrell, December 1938?)
Blushford, Ringwood, Hants
Dear Lawrence Durrell,
I think England is the very place for a fluent and fiery writer. The highest hymns of the sun are written in the dark. I like the grey country. A bucket of Greek sun would drown in one colour the crowds of colours I like trying to mix for myself out a grey flat insular mud. If I went to the sun I’d just sit in the sun; that would be very pleasant but I’m not doing it, and the only necessary things I do are the things I am doing. Unless by accidents, and my life is planned by them, I shall be nearer Bournemouth than Corfu this summer. It will need a nice accident for us to live anywhere: we are stages beyond poverty; completely possessionless; and we are willing but angry; we can take it but we don’t want it. I liked your Stygian prose very very much, it’s the best I’ve read for years. Don’t let the Greek sun blur your pages as you said it did.
Sincerely,
Dylan Thomas
Dear Lawrence Durrell,
I think England is the very place for a fluent and fiery writer. The highest hymns of the sun are written in the dark. I like the grey country. A bucket of Greek sun would drown in one colour the crowds of colours I like trying to mix for myself out a grey flat insular mud. If I went to the sun I’d just sit in the sun; that would be very pleasant but I’m not doing it, and the only necessary things I do are the things I am doing. Unless by accidents, and my life is planned by them, I shall be nearer Bournemouth than Corfu this summer. It will need a nice accident for us to live anywhere: we are stages beyond poverty; completely possessionless; and we are willing but angry; we can take it but we don’t want it. I liked your Stygian prose very very much, it’s the best I’ve read for years. Don’t let the Greek sun blur your pages as you said it did.
Sincerely,
Dylan Thomas
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