Hello and welcome to series 10 of Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast. Whilst on a tour of the country, in my capacity, a stand-up comedian, I did a gig in Swansea and actually stayed at the birthplace of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. I slept

in Dylan's bedroom at five cum donkin Drive in Swansea and I was with my tour manager and my support act and before we went to bed that

night I read some Dylan Thomas to them not exactly against their will it's hard to tell they're in

my pay they only have so much choice in these things.

Anyway, I thought I might read these poems to you today.

Why should you get away with it?

But obviously talk about them in a bit more detail.

So I'm going to begin by reading you the first stanza of one of those poems that I read that

night at Dylan Thomas's birthplace.

Okay, so the poem is called And Death Shall Have No Dominion.

It was written in 1933 when Dylan Thomas was, wait for it, 19 years of age.

I know. What happened apparently was Bert Trick, who was a mate of Dylan Thomas's in Swansea,

said,

let's both write a poem about immortality,

and we'll see who comes up with the best one.

Do young people still say stuff like that?

I don't know.

But anyway, this is the first stanza.

It's a shortish poem.

It's three nine-line stanzas. I'm going to give you a bit more

than I normally give. And what I would do for the first reading, if you're not familiar with Dylan

Thomas, is don't worry too much about what the hell I'm talking about. Just listen to it as if I was playing a saxophone solo.

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