1952
29
YEARS
DOMINION OF DEATH
Now working at the new London publishing office of Dents at Aldine House in Covent Garden, Underwood gets to meet a new variety of authors.
“I met Dylan Thomas a couple of times…”
Dylan Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems
“Do not go gentle into that good night” and
“And death shall have no dominion”.
“...almost the first words he said to me, a complete stranger, were…
‘You don’t have the cost of a drink, do you?’ ”
“…we met in the pub in Charing Cross Road that he sometimes frequented…”
“I learned that he was by no means sceptical of the idea of ghosts…”
“Knowing that he frequented The Gargoyle Club in Soho, I asked him whether he knew anything about the reputed ghost there…”
“He told me that he found a unique and quite fascinating atmosphere at The Gargoyle…”
“…he was certain the place was haunted, and he said he wouldn’t spend a night there alone for anything.”
“I remember he said that if you wanted to die or were reconciled to the fact,
it was different…”
“…but if you fought against death and refused to accept it…”
“…then he thought it very likely that ‘something’ lingered on after…”
‘Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.’
And Death Shall Have No Dominion, by Dylan Thomas
Thomas dies just one year later,
in 1953.
“I wonder what he would say about his ghost apparently haunting the old Boat House at Laugharne that he loved?”
“When I was there, researching my Ghosts of Wales, I met several people who told me they had glimpsed the distinct and untidy figure of the brilliant little poet…”
“…usually in mid-afternoon...”
“Dylan’s head was full of legend and myth,
and applause and admiration meant more to him than anything…”
“…perhaps something of that tormented personality does return from time to time to the place where
he worked so hard writing and rewriting, revising and re-revising until he achieved what he called…”
“...‘poetic truth’...”
Dylan Thomas's shed, where he wrote some of his poetry and stories.
It's an old shed that is near to the boathouse which was his final residence.
