Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas born Oct 27, 1914, died Nov 9, 1953, in NYC at the age of 39.

Famous for the line “do not go gentle into that good night“, Thomas described himself as a “roistering, drunken and doomed poet“. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas)

Considered one of the great English language modern poets of the 20th Century, Thomas developed and maintained his popularity through his radio recordings.

His poetic style was suggested to be influenced by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence among others. Dylan Thomas responded that his greatest influence was Mother Goose:

“I should say I wanted to write poetry in the beginning because I had fallen in love with words. The first poems I knew were nursery rhymes and before I could read them for myself I had come to love the words of them. The words alone. What the words stood for was of a very secondary importance … I fell in love, that is the only expression I can think of, at once, and am still at the mercy of words, though sometimes now, knowing a little of their behaviour very well, I think I can influence them slightly and have even learned to beat them now and then, which they appear to enjoy. I tumbled for words at once. And, when I began to read the nursery rhymes for myself, and, later, to read other verses and ballads, I knew that I had discovered the most important things, to me, that could be ever.” Myers, Jack; Wukasch, Don (2003). Dictionary of Poetic Terms. University of North Texas Press, U.S. ISBN 978-1-57441-166-9.

Unfortunately, the talented Dylan Thomas died far too early from advanced bronchopneumonia disguised by excessive drinking. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas)

Here is today’s homage haiku: Happy Birthday Dylan Thomas

Such a silly goose

no ugly duckling you – drink,

drank, drunk, dreary death

The White Horse Tavern in New York City, where Thomas was drinking shortly before his death.