One of the best known poets of the twentieth century, Dylan Thomas hailed from a seaside port in Wales. He started publishing poetry at the age of 20 and instantly received critical acclaim. As his popularity grew in Britain, he was invited to the United States for a series of readings. Thomas became legendary in the United States, and gained a large following. Nevertheless, his last years were shadowed by an increasingly tragic view of his own darkly tempestuous life. After a particularly long alcohol binge, Thomas died in New York in 1953. He was only 39 years old. Although his life was short, Thomas made a deep impression and his poems are immortal. The last two lines of Dylan Thomas’ most famous poem “Do not go gentle into that good night†(written not long before his own death) read: “Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
