How spirituality influences thought and behavior

¶ … Spirituality Influences the Works of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas has come and gone

Come and gone, come and gone,

Dylan Thomas has come and gone,

His blood turned to words.

Mason Williams, "Classical Gas" CD, 1967

The Poet vs. The Persona

Every poet is, in a sense, two people: the poet and the persona, or presence, that speaks through the poetry. With Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) both poet and persona tend to scintillate into the sublime and the ridiculous. With the aid of what Thomas called Comrade Bottle, they could unleash themselves into the depths of the subterranean and the grotesquely morbid. Some of Thomas'early verses were unintelligible, so in love with words was he; and critics have often disagreed on valid interpretations of Thomas' work (Ferris, 2000, p.95). As well, the disagreements carry over to valid interpretations of the poet's life.

How much of his drunken, often tactless prattle was for the sake of the song, and how much was the poet's gift -- and torture -- of seeing so much and feeling so deeply that it was all he could do to fend off madness? In a 1933 South Wales Evening Post essay, he wrote: "the borderline of insanity is more difficult to trace than the majority of people, comparatively safe within the barriers of their own common-sensibility, can realise" (Bedford-St. Martin's, N.D. 2).

With a 2000 second edition of the 1977 Dylan Thomas: The Biography, Ferris so deftly debunks the myth of the romantic, irresponsible poet that it seems impossible Thomas wrote as brilliantly as he did. In fact Ferris manages to reduce Thomas to little more than a miserable sot. While other critics may wax prolifically on the poet's Wales, his family, his culture, or his American tours; Ferris is not so loyal. He manages, somehow admirably, to reveal every ugly little tidbit he could glean from his cadre of "people who knew Thomas" and still write an excellent critique of the works; however, his effort appears more slanted than it would have

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In the "tell all" 1970's. But spirituality definitely lurks between the lines of Thomas' poetry -- chosen for analysis for its complexity of metaphor -- words Thomas admitted to pouring out without meaning. In 1953, the year of his death, the poet admitted in his Collected Poems: "These poems, with all their crudities, doubts and confusions, are written for the love of man and the praise of God and I'd be a damn fool if they weren't" (Bedford-St. Martin's, p. 1).

Spirituality vs. Religion

It should be noted that for the purposes of this paper, religion refers to a man-made institution based on a collective relationship with God/Higher Power, while spirituality refers to a Higher Power-made personal relationship which remains so when celebrated with others. Thomas was certainly not a churchgoer, although his mother was a pious woman (Ferris, p. 26).

The young poet did attend chapel with his mother as a child, but Ferris thinks Thomas' greatest youthful religious influence came from street preachers on soapboxes preaching fire and brimstone (p. 25). He also knew the Bible at least somewhat and added it "to a list of things that first made me love language" (p. 25). His father, a teacher and a font of knowledge upon whom Thomas relied, was an agnostic (p.25). Thomas' early questioning seems to have revolved around classic spiritual issues, including the reconciliation of "black" and "white"; "the painful recognition of life's contrasts" (p. 75) and questions about an afterlife.

On Thomas and religion, however, Ferris offers his opinion:

There are two views about Thomas and religion. One is that he was a 'religious'poet, and his life a movement towards God. The other. . .is that religion was a stage-prop of his poetry; he used its language and myths, which he learned in childhood, without ever absorbing or caring much about its central beliefs (p. 26).

Is there no character in verse?

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18 Poems (1934)

From this slender volume comes some of Thomas' finest poetry, which brought him immediate recognition. Much of it was written during his "seeking" periods and while under the influence of Bert Trick, an agnostic Socialist with an interest in Christian values (p.76) and also while having "horrors" -- gruesome thoughts or visions (p.75). No wonder he described his poetry as a "record of [his] struggle from darkness toward some measure of light" (Bedford-St. Martin's, 1) which are powerful spiritual allusions.

Examples of Thomas' own unique brand of dark thought is found in "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower (Poets.org, 2002). This title, which is also the first line, tells us that Nature, which through the grass grows the flower, and which uproots trees, is by law, brings the young poet closer to death. The last two lines of the first verse might tell us he is mute and cannot tell the bent, once lovely woman -- the crooked rose -- that his own youth is tainted by painful truths realized too soon.

In the second verse, Thomas alludes to how Nature (personified as "the force that drives the water through the rocks" and "[that] dries the mouthing streams" (v. 2, l.1)), both makes him feel well and unwell, respectively. Again, he is mute to tell his veins to catch up. "Force" or "Nature" is personified as a hand which can both "whirl water in the pool" or "stir the quicksand" (v. 3, l. 1-2). In the third verse, the poet sees the life/death force in his existence in his "shroud-sail" and his hangman allusions wherein he is the lime in which they bury the hanged man; a cover for the stench of death.

Time is personified as a pair of lips, which "leech to the fountain head" and a battered Love, which "drips and gathers" and for whom blood will heal her wounds. Then there is a patch of sky in Thomas' fourth verse:

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And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind

How time has ticked a heaven round the stars (v. 4. l. 4-5).

Since he cannot tell the wind, because he is mute, he must return to his former dark reality:

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb

How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm. (V.5, l. 1-2).

Again, Nature is a continual spiritual topic, especially Nature as related to Man as related to God. In this poem, all the joys are there for the poet to live with and revel in, yet the dark side cannot help but sculpt a grim rejoinder to each one. Thomas feels he has no control over death, that love is so cruel that it can be healed with blood -- a definite religious allusion -- and then for one bright moment he speaks of heaven. Because he cannot speak his heart, perhaps because he can't hold on, he returns to his thoughts of death -- complete with worm. Could it be because Thomas never found a faith he could live with that he simply decided to hasten the process, as in a death wish?

"Light breaks where no sun shines" can be highly confusing except for the last line, "Above the waste allotments the dawn halts" (v. 5, l. 6). It seems as though here Thomas is addressing life in Wales, which he saw as fairly horrid. The poet provides four verses of an extremely metaphorical good morning, rife with images of death, sex and even oil wells. The title itself could be an allusion to the sun coming up in a drearily unstimulating town, and the death illusions seem to be references to waking up from sleep -- especially if the poet has a hangover. But to Thomas, dawn -- for a moment -- approximates joy:

"Day lights the bone;

Where no cold is, the skinning gales unpin

The winter's robes;

The film of spring is hanging from the lids (v. 4, l. 3-6).

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Waste allotments end Thomas' reveries. Why? It could be the beginning of the clattering of the mundane. It could represent the waste, as well, of his time, of his brain, of his life, perhaps. Again, the poem shows contrasts, from the death-like state of sleep, to the first moments of dawn, when everything is still quiet. The poet has had a brief spiritual awakening -- moments of happiness and joy, but the incident, like the path of Thomas' own spirituality, is hard to sustain. How easily the poet's fifteen seconds of faith is shattered.

"All and all the dry worlds lever," tells us that the "dry world" is held up by ice, lava oil (a political allusion). The narrator of the poem addresses a dead man as "my mortal," admonishing him not to "fear the waking world" (v.3, l. 1).

Man of my flesh, the jawbone riven

Know now the flesh's lock and vice,

And the cage for the scythe-eyed raver,

Know, O my bone, the jointed lever

Fear not the screws that turn the voice,

And the face to the driven lover (v. 4, l. 1ff).

The narrator is a God-like figure sending a man of his flesh to the dry world; the Father/Son construct, as with Jesus Christ. Although the exact dates for most of these poems are uncertain or unknown, we do know Ferris has stated the poet used religious mythology without thought or conviction. However, in the final verse, Thomas calls for "flower, flower, the people's fusion"(v. 6, l.1). And that "all and all the dry world's couple" -- a strong peace theme (v. 5, l. 1). This serves to reinforce the Father/Son theme earlier in the poem. It is interesting to note, as well, that the people in the dry worlds are characterized by the Father/God as mechanical, toolbox, like figures (ribs of metal, synthetic blood (v. 4, 5-6) and love associated with violence (the bridal blade, the lover's mauling (v. 3, v. 5-6)). Is it possible they have lost their souls?

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Deaths and Entrances (1946)

This volume reflects Thomas' writing at a later age. According to Ferris, this volume which truly established the poet as a major force in English literature, was not a wellspring of religion:

. . .it seems likely that Thomas was declaring that death was final; he was affirming the present, not in the future. or. . .perhaps he didn't know what to think . .Nothing suggested he was achieving any harmony with his surroundings, physical or otherwise (Ferris, 201).

"Vision and Prayer" is a one-verse poem on the sounds of a birthing, one which is apparently going on between paper-thin walls in a room next to the poet's. This poem is in stark contrast to the first three analyzed. It is in simple language but does not manage to avoid Thomas' alienation theme, as with "In the birth bloody room unknown/to the burn and turn of time" (v. 1 l. 10-11) and "And the heart print of man/Bows no baptism/but dark alone" (v. 1, l. 12-14). The ending, "Blessing on/the wild/Child" (v. 1, l. 15-17) is likely a nod to the innocence of children -- another Thomas theme. "All of his life he hankered after the warm beds and mother-love of his childhood, Ferris wrote (p.22).

The poem impacts one with the proximity of the birth to the poet; he is given a spiritual event to be privy to. It seems as though a good many of Thomas' poems are written essentially about spiritual things: nature; death; love; life. It seems entirely up to the ability and mindset of the reader/critic to mine the poet for spiritual gold.

"This Side of the Truth" was written for the poet's first son, Llewellyn, as an anticipation of loss of innocence. In the first verse, he warns his son that everything is undone; however, he is unaware of it because he is so young. Thomas divides the world into innocence or guilt, good death or bad death, all of which appears to be predestinated:

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And the wicked wish,

Down the beginning of plants

And animals and birds

Water and Light, the earth and sky,

Is cast before you move,

And all your deeds and words

Each truth, each lie,

Die in unjudging love (v. 3, l. 5-12).

It doesn't seem possible that Thomas is merely fatalistic. The phrase "unjudging" strongly brings to mind the antithesis of the wrathful, angry God, but otherwise, everything else seems to be irrevocably under control. In these later poems, he is making definitive religious/spiritual statements; in his 18 Poems, he was approaching spirituality by relying on the dark side, but allowing a few glimmers of light.