131 LAN THOMAS IN AMERICA
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cannot believe that Mr. Arlott is simply !adulging in a rearguard action in his current letter. There seems rather to be a point at Which our intelligences fail to come into con- ,tact, a sort of mental sun-spot. For instance,
made no issue of the question of whether
Thomas finished (or was finishing) Under Milk Wood in America, beyond a parenthetical ;11,2urish, nor can I see that anything of
Portance attaches to it. I quoted it merely
as an instance of Thomas working in America, as which it is undeniable. Neither did I claim, 1c)r,_ suggest, that Mr. Brinnin claimed that A.riomas was 'finished' or did not want to
ork at his poetry. The suggestion was that
hontas had arrived at a creative impasse, and dared not work at his poetry. Which is rather different. Whether he would have broken out of his prolonged creative adolescence if he had !iled is an interesting subject for speculation. „ "here are signs that he had begun to see the 'ay in his reference to 'proper-er' plays, and Perhaps in the pathetic 'Oh, but I do want to go on---for another ten years anyway. But not 'Is a bloody invalid. . . (Brinnin, p. 211.) Hut by then he was too far towards another 'imawer to his dilemma, and no definitive judge- ttent can ever be passed.
So there was no denigration of Dylan, Mr.
firlo,1t, and no ground for accusation of cruelty '° (lead poets. To accept the facts temperately tld to consider them without passion is kinder homage than destructive partisanship. You wi:11 say I counsel perfection, but what else „ °old we expect from a cricketing man?— 'Yours ours faithfully, 7 Sr. John's Alley, Norwich
ALAN HUNTER
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