Page "Dylan Thomas" Paragraph 55

Many critics have argued that Thomas ' work is too narrow and that he suffers from verbal extravagance.

Those that have championed his work, have found the criticism baffling.

Robert Lowell wrote in 1947, " Nothing could be more wrongheaded, than the English disputes about Dylan Thomas's greatness ...

He is a dazzling obscure writer who can be enjoyed without understanding.

" Kenneth Rexroth said, on reading Eighteen Poems, " The reeling excitement of a poetry-intoxicated schoolboy smote the Philistine as hard a blow with one small book as Swinburne had with Poems and Ballads.

" Philip Larkin in a letter to Kingsley Amis in 1948, wrote that " no one can ' stick words into us like pins '... like he can ", but followed that by stating that he " doesn't use his words to any advantage ".

Amis was far harsher finding little of merit in his work.