Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" Under Milk Wood. He also wrote stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became widely popular in his lifetime; and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet".
Thomas at the Gotham Book Mart in New York, 1952
5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, the birthplace of Dylan Thomas
The main surviving structure of the former Swansea Grammar School on Mount Pleasant, mostly destroyed during the Swansea Blitz of 1941, was renamed the Dylan Thomas Building in 1988 to honour its former pupil. It was then part of the former Swansea Metropolitan University campus
Memorial plaque on the former Mount Pleasant site of Swansea Grammar School
Do not go gentle into that good night
"Do not go gentle into that good night" is a poem in the form of a villanelle by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953), and is one of his best-known works. Though first published in the journal Botteghe Oscure in 1951, the poem was written in 1947 while Thomas visited Florence with his family. The poem was subsequently included, alongside other works by Thomas, in In Country Sleep, and Other Poems and Collected Poems, 1934–1952. The poem entered the public domain on 1 January 2024.
Poet Dylan Thomas c. 1937–1938