Do we make enough fuss of our most renowned writer? Should there be an official day to mark his contribution to Welsh life and literature?

In Ireland they celebrate "Bloomsday" on June 16 in memory of James Joyce. Should we be doing something similar for Dylan Thomas? Or do we spend too much time on the past at the expense of the present?

You can find out lots more about Dylan Thomas, and try out a Random Poem Generator, on the BBC Wales Dylan Thomas website.

What do you think? Have Your Say.

Alan Williams, now living in Spain says: "Dylan was a great man a character the likes of which are fast disappearing from our society.

My mother had a cafe in Llansteffan, and when Dylan would visit he often called for a bite after 'stop tap'. My mother, who could be a formidable woman had no love for the devil drink, and would throw Dylan out, sometimes bodily (she was a big woman).

"I often wonder as my father was the local postman, etc. Under Milk Wood...............?"

"He showed her some poetry he had written, 'What do you think of this Gwen?' She said 'pretty good' and gave it him back. She went on to Swansea Uni reading languages. He did not. 'Not clever enough' she said!

"At that time they all despised a Welsh accent and prided themselves on being able to disguise it one of her younger sisters is still alive and also remembers Dylan. My mother's father was the organist at St Mary's before it was bombed."

Beryl from Port Talbot says:
"I disagree that his use of language was pretentious. I also do not agree with the remarks that it is only academics who apppreciate his poetry. His lifestyle was not exactly conventional, but who has not a skeleton in their cupboards. The only difference with Dylan being they all fell out for everyone to see. I wish there was another Welsh poet of his calibre. We have some fine poets but I do not see or read one with his genius and word drama expressed in so few lines. The detractors should read some of his prose a 'Childs Christmas in Wales' is just what a kids imagination would have been like at the time it was written."

Siani of Swansea says:
"I read with interest some of the comments regarding Dylan Thomas, who grew up just a short walk away from my current home. I disagree with some of Mike of Swansea's observations regarding the obscurity of some of Dylan's works. Despite his unconventional and sometimes rather contrived use of language, it is possible to understand Dylan's works, with a little effort. They become clearer if the reader knows a little about his life, and the chronology of the poems, and can therefore cross-reference events in his life with the poems.

"Mike also asks about Dylan's rather bombastic, Anglicised manner of speech. His accent was influenced by a mixture of a grammar school education, rigorous elocution lessons and a few fancy airs and graces he gave himself - apparently these contrived airs vanished if he got drunk, and he would lapse into a far more Welsh-sounding accent, as noted by several of his biographers.

"As for Mike's assessment of Under Milk Wood - I grew up in a tiny West Wales community, and this play, despite seeming to portray caricatures and stereotypes, could have been written in the tiny village where I grew up, complete with its eccentrics, gossips, Bible-bashers, etc.

"One more point - sorry this is so long - Ross from Maesteg says he believes Dylan would be horrified at the Anglicized pronumciation of his name. This is not so - he and his parents, as noted by a couple of biographers, were adamant his name was pronounced "Dillon", because they thought the Welsh pronunciation of his name sounded too much like the English "dull 'un" or "dull one"."

"All seem to play interestingly with words and structures - like verse-forms. But what do they mean? Some half dozen (those I think I understand) have a sad resonance, and would sound impressive read aloud on R4, in the middle of the last century, as they indulge in a fair bit of pompous rhetoric. A feature made far worse when listening to the strangely accented Dylan Thomas read them aloud. Where does that voice come from? Why is it so English?

"And what is the substance of 'Under Milk Wood'? Aren't plays about society? What does that pleasant and amusing radio piece amount to? A lightweight diversion, which offers a view of the Welsh the world can giggle at fondly.

"Can we really be proud of a drunken, often unreadable wordsmith who betrayed friends and family? Well. yes, provided the work towers above its creator. In Thomas' case, it doesn't."

" Not to everyones taste perhaps, but you cannot deny his awesome talent whatever anyone said about him. He knew the true components of poetry. Reading him for the first time I didn't 'get' what he was trying to say but soon realized the music of his words and the complex rhythms then I 'got' what he was saying. It was one of the most creative things to come out of Wales that I had come across. And he has fans from Mick Jagger to Bob Dylan who infamously named himself after reading Dylan Thomas. How many poets can boast that? Dylan Thomas will still be huge in the next century. They don't make them that often."

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