Record Number: 23685

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Let me say that the things that first made me love language and want to work [italics] in [end italics] it and [italics] for [end italics] it were nursery rhymes and folk tales, the Scottish Ballads, a few lines of hymns, the most famous Bible stories and the rhythms of the Bible, Blake's "Songs of Innocence", and the quite incomprehensible magical majesty and nonsense of Shakespeare heard, read, and near murdered in the first forms of my school'.

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 27 Sep 1921 and 27 Sep 1932

Country:

Wales

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Swansea

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Dylan Thomas

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

27 Oct 1914

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

later poet

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

Wales

Country of Experience:

Wales

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

William Blake

Title:

Songs of Innocence

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

23685

Source:

Print

Author:

Andrew Sinclair

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Dylan the Bard: A life of Dylan Thomas

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1999

Vol:

n/a

Page:

196

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Andrew Sinclair, Dylan the Bard: A life of Dylan Thomas, (London, 1999), p. 196, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=23685, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

These words are Thomas's own from a 'Poetic Manifesto' published in 1961 in "Texas Quarterly"