PENGUIN #18 Spines of the Penguin Poetry Series

Adopted by Erin

Erin said "Looking over all these poetry books, I was surprised by how many snippets of verse came to my mind.  If you ignore the "high school I-want-to-be-a-poet" phase, I can't say I ever gravitated to poetry in school or at the library.  I've started making more of an effort to read more than just novels and I haven't been disappointed."


I too have not really gravitated towards poetry (or non-fiction).  I mostly read novels.  My boyfriend is normally reading one of each, plus a philosophy book.  For a while he would keep his current poetry book in the bathroom because of the often shorter nature of poems.  It's a good hint if you're trying to read more poetry!


Okay, well now I would like to share with you a snippet of one of my very favorite works: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. I think of it as poetry, although it was written in the form of a play, "a play for voices", that was meant to be on the radio.  It is the only thing I've read by Dylan Thomas, but it was enough to make him one of my very favorite poets.  

And I especially love this part:

        FIRST VOICE
From where you are you can hear in Cockle Row in the spring,
moonless night, Miss Price, dressmaker and sweetshop-keeper,
dream of

        SECOND VOICE
her lover, tall as the town clock tower, Samsonsyrup-gold-maned,
whacking thighed and piping hot, thunderbolt-bass'd and
barnacle-breasted, flailing up the cockles with his eyes
like blowlamps and scooping low over her lonely loving
hotwaterbottled body.

        MR EDWARDS

Myfanwy Price!

        MISS PRICE

Mr Mog Edwards!

        MR EDWARDS

I am a draper mad with love. I love you more than all the
flannelette and calico, candlewick, dimity, crash and merino,
tussore, cretonne, crepon, muslin, poplin, ticking and twill
in the whole Cloth Hall of the world. I have come to take
you away to my Emporium on the hill, where the change hums
on wires. Throw away your little bedsocks and your Welsh
wool knitted jacket, I will warm the sheets like an electric
toaster, I will lie by your side like the Sunday roast.

Thanks again to Erin for adopting this postcard!!