THE centenary of Dylan Thomas's birth fell yesterday.
The Welsh poet, who died at 39, is perhaps best known for his radio play Under Milk Wood (I can still quote fragments from childhood listening!) and the exhortation to his dying father, "Do not go gentle into that good night." The opening verses from another of his poems catch something of his characteristic voice..
from FERN HILL
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle
starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his
eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall
light.
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his
means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy
streams.
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