The Irish Dylan Thomas: versions and influences

摘要

This essay considers the impact of Dylan Thomas on a number of Irish poets and how Thomas has been represented in the critical observations and writings of these poets. It notes how for Patrick Kavanagh the reputation of Dylan Thomas might have seemed a Welsh example of a kind of poetic posturing (for which the Kavanagh deployed the term 'the bucklep') that he associated with the Irish poets W.R. Rodgers and F.R. Higgins. By contrast Louis MacNeice respected these poets as he admired and defended Thomas' poetry. His own work during the Second World War was influenced by that of Thomas especially in its existential humanism which shared the Welsh poet's proccupatiuon with death as a theme. Following Thomas' own death MacNeice became a critical advocate for Thomas' verse, celebrating the poet as a skilled craftsman. The essay concludes by considering Thomas's reputation as it is assessed by Seamus Heaney and Derek Mahon. It notes how Heaney's reading is affected by a frame of reference drawn from Kavanaagh's writings while by contrast Mahon supplies a more enthusiastic critique, especially to Thomas' later work, which is seen to explore female sexuality, mature love and marriage.