17 pages • 34 minutes read
In My Craft or Sullen Art
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Bardic Symbols” by Walt Whitman (1860)
Dylan Thomas’s intricate use of language to create compelling sonic effects is in part a product of his fascination with Walt Whitman. Thomas studied Whitman’s language, which reflected Whitman’s interest in the emotive potential of opera. This poem positions Whitman, as Thomas does, as a Bardic poet, speaking in grand terms about cosmic things.
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake (1794)
One of Thomas’s other acknowledged influences was William Blake. This collection of seemingly simple poems explores emotional realities such as love, respect, dignity, and identity. Thomas responded to Blake’s mysticism and his perception of the poet as a religious figure.
“Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats (1927)
Another important influence on Thomas, William Butler Yeats here explores the deeply spiritual work of the poet as a lonely misfit trying to find a way to beauty. In language and symbols that are reflected in “In My Craft or Sullen Art,” Yeats examines the fragile poetic soul and the vulnerability of composition in a world of mercenary materialism.
Further Literary Sources
“‘In My Craft or Sullen Art’: A New (2022) Comprehensive Study of Dylan Thomas’s Renowned Poem of Self-Examination” by Paul G. Methven (2022)
This article approaches the poem as a work deformed by Thomas’s pessimism and his premature confrontation with morality itself. The article argues that the closing lines make vivid Thomas’s loneliness, frustration, and artistic failure.
“Notes on the Art of Poetry” by Dylan Thomas (Preface to Collected Poems, 1951)
In the introduction to what would become Thomas’s most successful collection, he lays out his conception of the spiritual nature of creativity, describing how the poet disregards as annoyances and distractions the usual metrics of success like money and fame. The prose captures Thomas musicality and heightened rhetoric.
“Not for Ambition or Bread” by The Poetry Society (2020)
The editors of The Poetry Society asked a number of prominent contemporary poets to respond to Thomas’s argument about the dynamics of poetry, why poets write, and the rewards of poetry.
Listen to the Poem
Dylan Thomas recorded reading the poem during one of his US tours in the early 1950s. Thomas plays with the vowel sounds and delivers each line with grandeur and tragic heroics. The video is illustrated with black and white photos of Thomas.
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By Dylan Thomas
