I'm a massive fan of 'Under Milk Wood' but I've always felt a bit ambivalent about this poem, or at least the sentiment expressed. There's no denying the language is powerful, but isn't raging against the inevitable a futile exercise? Perhaps the gist of it is that the poet is struggling to accept his father's mortality?
Thank you for this. It has to be one of my all time favourite poems. I lived in Wales for many years and being familiar with the accents of south Wales adds a certain additional lyricism to the experience of reading Thomas. Richard Burton's reading of 'Under Milk Wood' could never be surpassed. I have a book of Thomas's collected letters which are delightful to dip into. For one so drunk and so young, he produced a great many words one way or another. We lose so much in the age of the email, the text and the tweet which cannot be mined in the way of paper correspondence.
I'm a massive fan of 'Under Milk Wood' but I've always felt a bit ambivalent about this poem, or at least the sentiment expressed. There's no denying the language is powerful, but isn't raging against the inevitable a futile exercise? Perhaps the gist of it is that the poet is struggling to accept his father's mortality?
Thank you for this. It has to be one of my all time favourite poems. I lived in Wales for many years and being familiar with the accents of south Wales adds a certain additional lyricism to the experience of reading Thomas. Richard Burton's reading of 'Under Milk Wood' could never be surpassed. I have a book of Thomas's collected letters which are delightful to dip into. For one so drunk and so young, he produced a great many words one way or another. We lose so much in the age of the email, the text and the tweet which cannot be mined in the way of paper correspondence.