Dylan Thomas was pretty obsessed with words— their sound and their rhythm and all their possibilities for multiple meanings. I think all writers are similarly obsessed with words- after all, they are our medium's oil paints. But Dylan tends to go nuts on all this richness of meaning. Sometimes- well, actually often- his play with words goes to such extreme that it is hard to read his work. Even Dylan himself commented on his own excesses: Immature violence, rhythmic monotony, frequent muddle-headedness, frequent muddle-headedness, and a very much overweighted imagery that leads often to incoherence. Similarly he wrote: My own obscurity is quite an unfashionable one, based, as it is, on a preconceived symbolism derived (I'm afraid all this sounds wooly and pretentious) from the cosmic significance of the human anatomy. It's a wise poet who sees his own weaknesses.
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Dylan Thomas was pretty obsessed with words— their sound and their rhythm and all their possibilities for multiple meanings. I think all writers are similarly obsessed with words- after all, they are our medium's oil paints. But Dylan tends to go nuts on all this richness of meaning. Sometimes- well, actually often- his play with words goes to such extreme that it is hard to read his work. Even Dylan himself commented on his own excesses: Immature violence, rhythmic monotony, frequent muddle-headedness, frequent muddle-headedness, and a very much overweighted imagery that leads often to incoherence. Similarly he wrote: My own obscurity is quite an unfashionable one, based, as it is, on a preconceived symbolism derived (I'm afraid all this sounds wooly and pretentious) from the cosmic significance of the human anatomy. It's a wise poet who sees his own weaknesses.