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- When and where it was first published: New Verse, December 1935 and Twenty-five Poems (1936), as the 1935 revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death. - Further information: This is one of Dylan’s few political poems and was dedicated to A.E.T Trick – Bert Trick, Dylan’s friend that was a member of Labour party. It was revised and included in Twenty-five Poems (1936) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968). Currently out of print.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Let for one moment a faith statement
Rule the blank sheet of sleep,
The virgin lines be mated with a circle.
A circle spins. Let each revolving spoke
Turn and churn nightseed till it curdle. - Further information: Dedicated to Dylan’s friend T.H., Trevor Hughes.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968)
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
You are the ruler of this realm of flesh,
And this hill of bone and hair
Moves to the Mahomet of your hand.
But all this land gives off a charnel stench,
The wind smacks of the poor
Dumb dead the crannies house and hide.
- When and where it was first published: Swansea and West Wales Guardian, 8 June 1934 as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
That the sum sanity might add to nought
And matrons ring the harebells on their lips,
Girls woo the weather through the Sabbath night
And rock twin floods upon their starry laps. - Further information: This poem was rewritten outside of the notebook.
- When and where it was first published: Twenty-five Poems (1936), as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Grief, thief of time, crawls off
With wasted years and half
The loaded span of days.
Marauding pain steals off
With half the load of faith
That weighted thee to thy knees. - Further information: This poem and Notebook 4, poem ‘Eighteen’ were combined to become ‘Grief thief of time’ of Twenty-five Poems (1936) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Twenty-five Poems (1936), as the revised version ‘The seed-at-Zero’.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Shiloh’s seed shall not be sown
In the garden of the womb
By a salty dropsy sipping,
No Redeemer shall be born
In the belly of a lamb
Dumbly and divinely leaping
Over the god bearing green. - Further information: In March 1936 this poem was siginificantly altered and published as ‘The seed-at-Zero’ in Twenty-five Poems (1936) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: 18 Poems (1934) , as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Before I knocked and flesh let enter,
With liquid hands tapped on the womb,
I who was shapeless as the water
That shaped the Jordan near my home,
Was the brother to Mnetha’s daughter
And sister to the fathering worm. - Further information: This poem was revised for publication and included in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968). Currently out of print.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
We see the rise the secret wind behind the brain,
The spin of light sit on the eyes,
The code of stars translate in heaven.
A secret night descends between
The skull, the cells, the cabinet ears
Holding for ever the dead moon.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968). Currently out of print.
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Take the needles and the knives,
Put an iron at the eyes,
Let a maggot at the ear
Toil away till music dies. - Further information: This poem is likely to have been influenced by his father’s treatment with radium needles for cancer.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968). Currently out of print.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Not forever shall the lord of the red hail
Hold in his velvet hand the can of blood;
He shall be wise and let his brimstone spill,
Free from their burning nests the arrows’ brood. - Further information: This poem was dedicated to B.C, who has not been identified.
- When and where it was first published: New English Weekly, 30 July 1936, as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Before we mother naked fall
Upon the land of gold or oil
Between the raid and the response
Of flesh and bones.
- When and where it was first published: Dylan Thomas: The Notebook Poems 1930-1934, edited by Ralph Maud (1989).
- Where you can find it now: Dylan Thomas, The Notebook Poems, 1930-1934, edited by Ralph Maud (1989). Currently out of print
- Excerpt:
The sun burns the morning, a bush in the brain;
Moon walks the river and raises the dead;
Here in my wilderness wanders the blood;
And sweat on the brow makes a sign,
And the wailing heart’s nailed to the side.
- When and where it was first published: 18 Poems (1934) , as the revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
My hero bares his nerves along my wrist
That rules from wrist to shoulder
Unpacks the head that like a sleepy ghost
Leans on my mortal ruler
The proud spine spurning turn and twist. - Further information: In 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952), the last part of this poem is not used. That part of the poem was used in Notebook 4, poem ‘eighteen’.
- When and where it was first published: 18 Poems (1934) , as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
In the beginning was the three-pointed star,
One smile of light across the empty face;
One rib of flesh across the frame of air,
The substance spread that moulded the first sun;
And heaven was, a cloudy hole, and hell
A burning stick across the bum of space. - Further information: A later version of this poems is poem ‘Forty’ notebook four. It became ‘In the beginning’ 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Sunday Referee, 7 January 1934 and The Poems, edited by Daniel Jones (1971).
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Love me, not as the dreamy nurses
My falling lungs, nor as the cypress
In his age the lass’s clay.
Love me and lift your mask. - Further information: Possibly written with Pamela Hansford Johnson, Dylan’s first girlfriend, (yet to meet) in mind.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
For loss of blood I fell where stony hills
Had milk and honey flowing from their cracks,
And where the footed dew was on the pools
I knelt to drink the water dry as sticks. - Further information: Dylan notes, ‘In three parts’. Part one is poem ‘seventeen’, part two is poem ‘eighteen’ and part three is poem ‘nineteen’. They were typed up together under the title, ‘Jack of Christ’, except for the last few verses.
- When and where it was first published: Twenty-five Poems (1936), as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Jack my father, let the knaves
Fill with swag of bubbles their sad sacks,
No fingers press their fingers on the wax
Red as the axe, blue as a hanging man. - Further information: Dylan notes, ‘In three parts’. Part one is poem ‘seventeen’, part two is poem ‘eighteen’ and part three is poem ‘nineteen’. They were typed up together under the title, ‘Jack of Christ’, except for the last few verses. Part of this poem appears as the opening of the second part of ‘Grief thief of time’ in Twenty-five Poems (1936) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952), as well as some parts of notebook 4, poem ‘five’.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print
- Excerpt:
The girl, unlacing, trusts her breast,
Doubts not its tint nor how it leans;
Faith in her flesh maintains its shape
From toe to head. - Further information: Dylan notes, ‘In three parts’. Part one is poem ‘seventeen’, part two is poem ‘eighteen’ and part three is poem ‘nineteen’.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print
- Excerpt:
Through these lashed rings set deep inside their hollows
I eye the ring on earth, the airy circle,
My Maker’s flesh that garments my playfellows.
And through these trembling rings set in their valley.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print
- Excerpt:
Ape and ass both spit me forth,
I am spawn of leech and frog;
Crawling from the serpent’s egg
I am born to breed and breathe. - Further information: Incomplete poem.
- When and where it was first published: 18 Poems (1934) , as ‘I fellowed sleep’.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
The eye of sleep turned on me like a moon,
Let fall the tear of time; the hand of sleep
Let fall the snail of time and wound his horn.
So, feather heeled, I journeyed through a dream,
And had the lip of darkness on my lip. - Further information: The first version of ‘I fellowed sleep’. Some parts of notebook 4, ‘thirty-one’ were stuck onto this poem, more than likely in April 1934, which became the ‘I fellowed sleep’ from 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Sunday Referee, 29 October 1933 and 18 Poems (1934) , as slightly revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the slightly revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age, that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And am I dumb to tell the crookèd rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. - Further information: This poem is dedicated to E.P, possibly Dylan’s friend, Evelyn Phillips. It was the poem that helped Dylan win the book prize which resulted in his first book publication. Slightly amended for publication. It was collected in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: The Criterion, October 1934 and 18 Poems (1934) , as revised poem.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
From love’s first fever to her plague, from the soft second
And to the hollow minute of the womb,
From the unfolding to the scissored caul,
The time for breast and the green apron age
When no mouth stirred about the hanging famine. - Further information: Combined and completed as ‘Twenty-six’, later in the notebook. It was collected in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print
- Excerpt:
The almanac of time hangs in the brain;
The seasons numbered by the inward sun,
The winter years, move in the pit of man;
His graph is measured as the page of pain
Shifts to the red wombed pen.
- When and where it was first published: The Criterion, October 1934 and 18 Poems (1934) revised as ‘From love’s first fever to her plague’.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Dylan Thomas: The Notebook Poems 1930-1934, edited by Ralph Maud (1989). Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
And from the first declension of the flesh
I learn man’s tongue, to twist the shapes of thoughts
Into the stony idiom of the brain,
To shade and knit anew the patch of words
Left by the dead who, in their moonless acre,
Need no word’s warmth. - Further information: Parts were deleted and then combined with poem ‘Twenty Four’ under the title ‘From love’s first fever to her plague’. It was collected in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print
- Excerpt:
All that I owe the fellows of the grave
And all the dead bequeath from pale estates
Lies in the fortuned bone, the flask of blood,
Like senna stirs along the ravaged roots. - Further information: A line from this poem was used in ‘ I dreamed a genesis’ of 18 Poems and Dylan’s Collected Poems.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print
- Excerpt:
Here lies the beasts of man and here I feast,
The dead man said,
And silently I milk the devil’s breast.
- When and where it was first published: New Verse, June 1934 and 18 Poems (1934) , as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
When once the twilight locks no longer
Locked in the long worm of my finger
Nor damned the sea that sped about my fist,
The mouth of time sucked, like a sponge,
The milky acid on each hinge,
And swallowed dry the waters of the breast. - Further information: This poem was revised for publication. It was collected in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: The Listener, 14 March 1934 and 18 Poems (1934)
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Light breaks where no sun shines;
Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart
Push in their tides;
And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads,
The thing of light
File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones. - Further information: When this poem was published in The Listener, it received numerous complaints because of its overtly sexual content. It was collected in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)[/li_item]
- When and where it was first published:18 Poems (1934) , as revised 1934 version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
I fellowed sleep who kissed between the brains;
Her spinning kiss through my lean sheets
Stopped in the bones. - Further information: Combined with notebook four, poem ‘twenty-two’, probably in April 1934, to produce ‘I fellowed sleep’ in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
See, says the lime, my wicked milks
I put round ribs that packed their heart,
And elbowed veins that, nudging blood,
Roused it to fire. - Further information: Similar to notebook 4, poem ‘twenty-eight’.
- When and where it was first published: New English Weekly, 16 July 1936 and Twenty-five Poems (1936)
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
This bread I break was once the oat,
This wine upon a foreign tree
Plunged in its fruit;
Man in the day or wind at night
Laid the crops low, broke the grape’s joy. - Further information: A ‘Christmas’ poem with a famous misprint in Twenty-five Poems (1936) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952), ‘wind’ instead of ‘wine’. Luckily, this was corrected in later editions.
- When and where it was first published: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas, edited by Ralph Maud (USA 1967, UK 1968).
- Where you can find it now: Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Your pain shall be a music in your string
And fill the mouths of heaven with your tongue
Your pain shall be
O my unborn
A vein of mine
Made fast by me.
- When and where it was first published: Sunday Referee, 28 October 1934 and 18 Poems (1934) 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 Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
A process of weather of the heart
Turns damp to dry; the golden shot
Storms in the freezing grave.
- When and where it was first published: Sunday Referee, 28 October 1934, Purpose in 1935, Contemporary Poetry and Prose, May 1936 and Twenty-five Poems (1936) as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Foster the light, nor veil the bushy sun,
Nor sister moon that go not in the bone,
But strip and bless the marrows in the spheres. - Further information: The first line of this poem came from a letter to Dylan from his friend, Trevor Hughes in response to news of Dylan’s father’s cancer. He wrote, ‘Foster the light, and God will be with you.’ This notebook poem was revised before publication in Twenty-five Poems (1936) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: New Verse, April 1934 and 18 Poems (1934) as ‘Our eunuch dreams’
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as ‘Our eunuch dreams’ and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
The Shades of girls all flavoured from their shrouds,
The bones of men, the broken in their beds,
even the dancing ash.
When sunlight goes go dainty in the years;
And even we, ascending through the lids,
Dance in our drowsy flesh. - Further information: This poem was revised before publication and called ‘Our eunuch dreams’. It was published in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: Sunday Referee, 25 March 1934 and 18 Poems (1934) 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 Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
Where once the waters of your face
Spun to my screws, your dry ghost blows,
The dead turns up its eye;
Where once the mermen through your ice
Pushed up their hair, the dry wind steers
Through salt and root and roe.
- When and where it was first published: New Verse (June 1934) and 18 Poems (1934)
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014) and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
I see the boys of summer in their ruin
Lay the gold tithings barren,
Setting no store by harvest freeze the soils;
There in their heat the winter floods
Of frozen loves they fetch their girls,
And drown the cargoes apples in their tides. - Further information: The was the first poem in Dylan’s first collection, 18 Poems (1934) and included in Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)
- When and where it was first published: 18 Poems (1934) , as revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
In the beginning was the three-pointed star,
One smile of light across the empty face;
One bough of bone across the rooting air,
The substance spread that marrowed the first sun;
ANd, burning ciphers on the round of space,
Heaven and hell mixed as they spun. - Further information: With notebook 4, ‘fifteen’ this was revised and published as ‘In the beginning’ in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952).
- When and where it was first published: New Verse, August 1934 and 18 Poems (1934) , as slightly revised version.
- Where you can find it now: The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas, The New Centenary Edition, edited by John Goodby (2014), as the slightly revised version, and Poet in the Making: The Notebooks of Dylan Thomas. Currently out of print.
- Excerpt:
If I was tickled by the rub of love
A rooking girl who stole me for her side,
Broke through her straws, breaking my bandaged string,
If the red tickle as the cattle calve
Still set to scratch a laughter from my lung,
I would not fear the apple nor its flood
Nor the bad blood of spring. - Further information: This notebook poem was slightly revised before publication. It was collected in 18 Poems (1934) and Dylan’s Collected Poems (1952)