It is May 14—International Dylan Thomas Day. On this date in 1953,
Thomas completed and first read 'Under Milk Wood' in its entirety.
"After the first death, there is no other."
— Dylan Thomas
Today's generated villanelle explores the theme of memory:
When names slip from the tongue, I know the vast
The touch recalls the lost reshapes in the defined
And what reshapes now will always behind
Though faces blur and fade through the mast
We learn to let the voices echo still remind
When names slip from the tongue, I know the vast
What seems so contrast might come to outcast
And every music brings it back will reshapes and defined
And what reshapes now will always behind
The vast holds more than meets the eye
While something reshapes in the behind
When names slip from the tongue, I know the vast
We cannot know how mast will try
To shape what reshapes beneath the defined
And what reshapes now will always behind
So when the names slip from the tongue reshapes by
And touch recalls the lost reshapes in the remind
When names slip from the tongue, I know the vast
And what reshapes now will always behind
Dylan Thomas Day
International Dylan Thomas Day is observed on May 14, marking the date in 1953
when Thomas completed "Under Milk Wood" and gave its only complete reading by
the author. Six months later, he would be dead at 39.
His villanelle "Do not go gentle into that good night" remains perhaps the most
famous example of the form ever written. Today we honor him with obsession,
with repetition, with rage against the dying of the light.