SOURCE: Davies, Walford. “Contexts and Conclusions.” In Dylan Thomas, pp. 94-123. Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press, 1986.

In the following essay, Davies examines Thomas's writings within the geographical context of his origins as well as within the cultural context of Modernism.

‘I never thought that localities meant so much, nor the genius of places, nor anything like that.’ In the biographical outline at the beginning of this Guide, we allowed that comment by Thomas to direct us quite simply to events and places. In the meantime, we have encountered strong and often strange poems. We are now in a position to consider the more general contexts contributing to the nature and meanings of those poems. Part of what we mean by ‘context’ has to do with Thomas's emergence as a poet in what was essentially a Modernist period. And that in turn determines the ‘critical’ context in which...