Dylan Thomas: An Original Language

by Barbara Hardy

Dylan Thomas's expressive, highly imaginative re-creation of forms and language intimately portrays his inner self and his time, earning him renown as one of the "great individualists of modern art." In this contemplative, focused study of poems, stories and other works by Thomas, including Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog and Under Milk Wood , Barbara Hardy emphasizes his creative achievements and high intelligence, analyzing his regional identity; response to other writers, especially James Joyce; modernist style; subject matter; use of language; and themes of art and the natural world.

Thomas, a Welsh writer, never a nationalist, put into his writing a subtle response to regional landscape, particular people and places, and social context, including the 1930s depression, rural poverty, and war. His poetry and prose are passionate, sensuous, and artistically self-aware. The poetry is especially congenial in its imaginative celebration of greenness―literal, metaphorical, and political. To adapt the words of Charles Lamb, the poet is in "love with this green earth."

Hardy describes Thomas as a resourceful "language-changer" who, like Shakespeare, Dickens, Hopkins, and Joyce, transforms the English language. Through writing so uniquely inventive that it alters the reader's perception of language, Thomas left us with works that are as fresh and relevant to today's world as they were at their debut.

168 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Barbara Hardy, FRSL, FBA (née Nathan; 27 June 1924 – 12 February 2016) was a British literary scholar, author, and poet. As an academic, she specialised in the literature of the 19th Century. From 1965 to 1970, she was Professor of English at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Then, from 1970 to 1989, she was Professor of English Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Hardy was born on 27 June 1924 in Swansea, Wales. She was educated at Swansea High School for Girls, a grammar school. In February 1941, she experienced the Swansea Blitz. She studied at University College London, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1947 and a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1949.

In 1962, Hardy was awarded the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize by the British Academy for her monograph The Novels of George Elliot. In 1997, she was awarded the Sagittarius Prize by the Society of Authors for her novel London Lovers. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1997, and a Senior Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2006.

(from Wikipedia)