Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood

William Henry Christie (Australian National University)

Ed. by Kirsti Bohata, Swansea University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.2: Welsh Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kirsti Bohata (Swansea University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele), Rita Singer (Aberystwyth University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1953

Places

Wales (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Under Milk Wood

is the poetic “play for voices” Dylan Thomas conceived and wrote for BBC radio towards the end of his life, a complete but unfinished version of which was first read publicly by Thomas and a group of five American actors at the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association in New York in May 1953, six months before the poet died (Ferris 1999, 302). Though never quite finished, the play nevertheless continues to enjoy a wide readership and even wider audience, especially on the stage where it has evoked some brilliant audio, musical, and stage effects, sometimes at the expense of the language. Set in a tiny seaside village in Wales, famously entitled Llareggub (“bugger all” backwards), the play chronicles one day in the lives of the village’s inhabitants at…

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3029 words

Citation: Christie, William Henry. "Under Milk Wood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 August 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8538, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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