![THOMAS, Dylan. Typed manuscript, the first four sonnets of "Poems for a Poem" ("Altarwise by owl-light," etc.), with autograph title at the head, the verso covered with ink drawings, snatches of prose and lists of authors, n.p., n.d. [probably just before December 1935]. 1 page, folio. Provenance: James Gilvarry (his sale Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 254).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01579_0293_000(111537).jpg?w=1)
細節
THOMAS, Dylan. Typed manuscript, the first four sonnets of "Poems for a Poem" ("Altarwise by owl-light," etc.), with autograph title at the head, the verso covered with ink drawings, snatches of prose and lists of authors, n.p., n.d. [probably just before December 1935]. 1 page, folio. Provenance: James Gilvarry (his sale Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 254).
Thomas's sequence of seven sonnets was first published in Life and Letters Today, vol. 13, no. 2 (December 1935), with the collective title "Poem for a Poem." In a letter which accompanied the manuscript when submitted to the magazine (see preceding lot), Thomas expressed the hope that it would be liked "despite its obscurity and incompleteness. It's the first passage of what's going to be a very long poem indeed." Only a further three sonnets were ever added to the sequence though, in the course of the next year. In 25 Poems, the cycle was published in its entirety. The present probably is the first leaf only of the typescript originally submitted by the poet: at the top right-hand corner is the note, in an unknown hand "Life & Letters To-day/12 pt." The second leaf, not present, presumably bore sonnets V, VI, and VII. The original typed title, deleted in ink, reads simply "POEM." Over it, Thomas has inscribed the new title, "Poems for a Poem." At some time the manuscript was probably returned to Thomas, after which he used it for the doodles and disjointed, but quite interesting, notes on the verso. These include drawings of heads and figures, disconnected statements ("If I died today I'd be tickled to death" and "as a cup of lemon water") comments on his reading ("Conrad Aiken's splendid story, The Arcularis") and lists of authors, among whom appear Elizabeth Bowen, Hemingway and "Faulkener" [sic].
Thomas's sequence of seven sonnets was first published in Life and Letters Today, vol. 13, no. 2 (December 1935), with the collective title "Poem for a Poem." In a letter which accompanied the manuscript when submitted to the magazine (see preceding lot), Thomas expressed the hope that it would be liked "despite its obscurity and incompleteness. It's the first passage of what's going to be a very long poem indeed." Only a further three sonnets were ever added to the sequence though, in the course of the next year. In 25 Poems, the cycle was published in its entirety. The present probably is the first leaf only of the typescript originally submitted by the poet: at the top right-hand corner is the note, in an unknown hand "Life & Letters To-day/12 pt." The second leaf, not present, presumably bore sonnets V, VI, and VII. The original typed title, deleted in ink, reads simply "POEM." Over it, Thomas has inscribed the new title, "Poems for a Poem." At some time the manuscript was probably returned to Thomas, after which he used it for the doodles and disjointed, but quite interesting, notes on the verso. These include drawings of heads and figures, disconnected statements ("If I died today I'd be tickled to death" and "as a cup of lemon water") comments on his reading ("Conrad Aiken's splendid story, The Arcularis") and lists of authors, among whom appear Elizabeth Bowen, Hemingway and "Faulkener" [sic].