Dylan’s Collected Poems were published in 1952 and included the poems from his earlier collections: 18 Poems, Twenty-five Poems, The Map of Love, Deaths and Entrances and In Country Sleep, as well as a new poem, ‘Prologue’. The one poem Dylan chose to omit from his version was ‘Paper and Sticks’ from Deaths and Entrances, though this was included in later editions, as was ‘Elegy’ and ‘In Country Heaven’. We have added these to the list below. The poems are still in print in The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and The Dylan Thomas Omnibus, both published by Orion.
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- When was it written: March-September 1952
When and where it was first published: The Listener, 6 November 1952 and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952) - Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and The Dylan Thomas Omnibus both published by Orion.
- Excerpt:
This day winding down now
At God speeded summer’s end
In the torrent salmon sun,
On my sea shaken house
On a breakneck of rocks
Tangled with chirrup and fruit. - Further information: This was the prologue to Dylan’s Collected Poems 1934-1952.
‘I set myself, foolishly perhaps, a most difficult task: The prologue is in two verses…of 51 lines each. And the second verse rhymes backward with the first. The first and last line of the poem rhyme; the second and the last but one and so on and so on’.
(Dylan’s description of this ambitious poem).