Any extremely unscientific survey.
Dylan Thomas came up on a facebook thread. The respondents were all poets. The question: what part did Dylan Thomas play in your development? How do you value his poetry now?
There seemed to me a clear division in the responses. Those descended from, schooled by, you get my drift, Eliot and Audenwere rhapsodic about him, those descended from the New American Poetry less so or not at all. I said it was unscientific. Fact is, I can't remember his ever being mentioned by the poets I know, except as a phase of their poetic adolescence. The same is true of my British non-mainstream poet friends. I don't remember his ever coming up on this list, either.
So? How would you answer the question(s)? I'll convey the results, sans names, if you please.
Best,
Mark
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