Thomas wrote one of those thousand-year poems, a poem so good that no one will write a better one for at least a thousand years. I had the same experience with Yeats. "These Are The Clouds" revealed to me what a great poem can be.
It starts out majestically:
These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye
And then gets even better:
The weak lay hand on what the strong have done
Till that be tumbled that was lifted high
And discord follow upon unison
And all things at one common level lie
This was written in 1916, a good year for Yeats and for Irish independence.
Last edited by Tim McGrath; 04-18-2020 at 08:46 PM.
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