One of Britain's greatest modern writers, Dylan Marlais Thomas had a huge impact on my youthful aspirations to write poetry. To be fair, he has an impact on just about everyone who has ever read his work. I first stumbled across his poetry as I was working in a college library.
Still a teenager at the time, I began to read through his poetry and was utterly impressed by how different it was. I soon determined to write in my own esoteric, metaphorical and image-laden version of his style.
It was only last week, while on holiday in West Wales that I once again stumbled on Dylan Thomas - this time, as I visited his resting place. Thomas was born in Swansea in 1914 and died in 1953 in New York City, during the rehearsals of his play Under Milk Wood. He is buried in the churchyard of St Martin's in the Welsh town of Laugharne.
When I visited the graveside, I was surprised to see that unlike all its surrounding stone burial plots, the poet's grave is a mound of bare earth, beneath a simple milk-white wooden cross that bears his name. He is appropriately buried 'under milk wood'.
I also visited his writing hut (pictured top), overlooking the sea, in which one can see his old writing desk, chair draped with one of his favourite jackets, and numerous other artefacts from the writer's tragically brief life.
Later, I had a drink in one of his notorious watering holes, Brown's Hotel, which is replete with artefacts and memorials to his name. The hotel reeks of 1930s decadence, and is redolent of raucous, smokey, whisky-fuelled nights.
Laugharne is a magical place, tucked into the mystical underbelly of West Wales. It was acknowledged by the author himself as the town in which Under Milk Wood was set. It's said that whenever Dylan Thomas was in a fallow period, he would always return to Laugharne to regain his muse.
Whether the ghost of Dylan Thomas haunts these places is unknown, but the power of his legacy certainly exudes a potent and evocative presence in the place.
Steve Wheeler
Photos copyrighted by Steve Wheeler, 2024
