Cultural depictions of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas, (1914 – 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer who has — along with his work — been remembered and referred to in various media.

In literature

• The poem "Thou Shalt Not Kill" by American poet Kenneth Rexroth bears the subtitle "A Memorial for Dylan Thomas".
• In issue #26 of the Vertigo Comics series Preacher, Thomas is depicted as a previous acquaintance of the character Cassidy. Cassidy is with Thomas when he collapses outside the White Horse Tavern, Thomas's last words being "The trouble with you fuckin' Irish is, you don't know how to drink..."
• In his book, Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar makes several references to Dylan Thomas.

In music

• Bob Dylan's 1963 song When the Ship Comes In contains the phrase, "the chains of the sea", which matches the last line of Thomas's Fern Hill: "I sang in my chains like the sea". Dylan, born as Robert Zimmermann, actually took his last name from Thomas.

• In Simon & Garfunkel's 1966 song, A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission), Paul Simon jokingly states, "He's so unhip, that when you say Dylan, he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas, Whoever he was."

• A song by The Rambones, a rock band based in Wales, offers a tribute to Thomas in the final line, as they sing, "I choose to go gentle, but I promise/It's with no offence to Dylan Thomas."

• Pittsburgh area band The Gathering Field referred to him in a song called "Dylan Thomas Days" on their self-titled album.

• In Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' 2002 song "There She Goes, My Beautiful World", Nick Cave sings "Dylan Thomas/he died drunk/in St. Vincent's Hospital"

• The song "Dog's Eyes, Owl Meat & Man Chop" by The Men They Couldn't Hang refers to Dylan Thomas and the area of Wales where he lived.

• John Cale set a number of Thomas's poems to music: There was a saviour, Do not go gentle into that good night, On a Wedding Anniversary and Lie still, sleep becalmed, recording them in his 1989 album Words for the Dying and (except for the first one) in his 1992 solo live album Fragments of a Rainy Season. Notable among these is "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", which he performed on stage in the concert held in Cardiff in 1999 to celebrate the opening of the Welsh Assembly. He also has a song titled "A Child's Christmas in Wales," the title being an homage to Dylan Thomas's work but with different lyrics and subject.

• Igor Stravinsky wrote In memoriam Dylan Thomas: Dirge canons and song (1954) for tenor voice, string quartet, and four trombones, based on Do not go gentle into that good night

• The cover of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band includes a photograph of Dylan Thomas.

• Under Milk Wood a 1965 album by Stan Tracey, inspired by Dylan Thomas, is one of the most celebrated jazz recordings made in the United Kingdom

In Film

• The film The Edge Of Love (2008) is based on part of Thomas' life in Swansea during World War II. He is portrayed by actor Matthew Rhys.

• In the 80's comedic film Back To School Rodney Dangerfield performs a silly, melodramatic reading of "Do not go gentle into that good night."

• In the 2002 film Solaris, Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) reads the first stanza of And Death Shall Have no Dominion.

• In the 1994 film Before Sunrise, Ethan Hawke's character mimics Dylan Thomas's voice, reading a fragment from the well-known poem As I Walked Out One Evening written by W.H. Auden.

• The Ethan Hawke-directed film Chelsea Walls has a Dylan Thomas poem written on a hotel room wall.

• Under Milk Wood is a 1972 British drama film directed by Andrew Sinclair and based on the story Under Milk Wood by the Welsh writer Dylan Thomas. It starred Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole.[1] Like the book it portrays the inhabitants of a small Welsh village Llareggub.

On television

• In the episode "Fore Father" of the cartoon Family Guy, an ill Stewie Griffin tells himself: "Fight it Stewie, fight it. 'Do not go gentle into that good night,' to quote Bob Dylan. Wait, no, wait, Dylan Thomas."

Bob Dylan's name

It has been suggested that Bob Dylan, who was born Robert Allen Zimmerman, adopted the name "Dylan" from Dylan Thomas. He had often denied this. In his 2004 biography, Chronicles Vol.1, however, Dylan admits that Dylan Thomas was relevant to his choice of alias, but only because he liked the spelling better, changing the surnom de plume of "Dillon" to "Dylan".

Bob Dylan is also billed as 'Robert Milkwood Thomas' (referring to Thomas' Under Milk Wood) on Steve Goodman's "Somebody Else's Troubles" where he plays piano and harmonises on the title track.