Dylan Thomas’ poetic talent was evident from as early as age fourteen; the discovery of this early poem delights readers and admirers of the poet.
About a decade ago, Jeff Towns, a fan of Dylan Thomas and a bookstore proprietor, discovered a poem the poet had written and published in the July 1929 edition of a magazine of the Swansea Grammar School. Towns was looking through the school magazine for poems to include in publication he had planned about poetry and food.
Towns says that when he discovered the poem by the young Dylan Thomas, "It was like finding a hidden masterpiece by Rembrandt." Until Towns rediscovered the poem, only Thomas scholars had been aware of it.
The poem is called “A Ballad of Salad.” The following excerpt of the poem appears on the bar meal menu of the Dylan Thomas Center in Swansea, the town in which Thomas was born:
Give me the lettuce that has cooled
It's heart in the rich earth,
Till every joyous leaf is schooled
To crisply crinkled mirth.
The poem is a charming precursor to the brilliant work Thomas later accomplished. To read the entire poem, please see "Thomas's salad poem still fresh by Sean O'Neill."
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