Well, this is not a joke review poking fun at workshop responses, it's for real.
I don't find this poem in Thomas "Collected Poems" and though I am a huge fan of his writing, I don't think it is a very good poem. The first four lines are very good, but it declines after that.
The preface to
Collected Poems 1934 - 1953 (Everyman, 1988) has this to say.
Quote:
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In his introductory note to Collected Poems 1934 - 1952, Dylan Thomas said that he had included all the poems that he wished up to that time, to preserve. The present volume has been entitled Collected Poems 1934-1953 because it reflects almost totally Thomas's own choice, but adds two poems that Thomas was working on up the the year of his death in 1953.
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I would like to know more about the history of this poem. It seems to me to have Thomas' stamp on it, but not the final polish. Alas, it might have been found among his papers and wasn't at all a poem he wishes to be known by.
Coincidentally, I have just been reading
The Collected Poems: Sylvia Plath and not without some trepidation. Not until I got to page 35 did I find a poem that was mature and publishable. Also in this case, I believe that Sylvia Plath would be appalled to find many of these poems published--she never threw away a poem, so anything poemlike she wrote is (I presume) in this book and it drags down her reputation. I bought the
Collected because I only had three slim volumes purchased decades ago:
Ariel, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees, all of them fine volumes and carefully selected.
In short. Dylan Thomas did not include this in his "Collected" so I think he did not regard it as "finished" i.e. publishable. Neither do I, though of course my opinion isn't worth a fig.
I do wonder though about the appearance of
Through periscopes rightsighted from the grave; as a similar metaphor appears in Ian's poem. I wonder if he was inspired by the Thomas' poem or if the image welled up independently (no pun intended).