NEW research has revealed that Dylan Thomas copied poems by other writers and published them under his own name while he was still at school in Swansea.
The discovery was made by publisher and editor Alessandro Gallenzi while preparing a new complete collection of the poet’s work. After studying Thomas’s contributions to Swansea Grammar School’s magazine, Gallenzi identified at least 12 poems written by other authors but submitted by Thomas during his teenage years. He believes the true figure could be higher.
Thomas was a prolific contributor to the school magazine from the age of 11 and later became its editor. However, closer examination showed that several poems closely matched work previously published elsewhere, sometimes years earlier.
One example included a poem Thomas submitted to the Western Mail in 1927, which turned out to be almost identical to a piece published five years earlier in Boy’s Own Paper. In another case, Thomas managed to publish a copied poem in Boy’s Own Paper itself, despite the original having appeared in the same magazine 15 years before.
Gallenzi described the findings as “wholesale plagiarism” but said they offered valuable insight into Thomas’s early development rather than diminishing his later achievements.
“This is fascinating from a biographical and psychological point of view,” he said. “At the same time, Thomas was writing original poetry, and when his own voice emerged, it was unmistakably unique.”
The research began after access was granted to one of only two complete surviving collections of the school magazine, owned by Geoff Haden, president of the Dylan Thomas Society and curator of the poet’s birthplace in Swansea.
Haden said he was not surprised by the revelations, noting that a small number of examples had been suspected for years.
“I think he wanted something to show his father,” he said. “His father was an English teacher at the school and had high expectations.”
The plagiarised poems will not be included in the main body of the forthcoming collection, Dylan Thomas – The Complete Poems, but will appear in an appendix to illustrate the poet’s formative years.
A selection of the school magazine poems will go on display at Dylan Thomas’s birthplace at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive this weekend.
