ambiguous reversal of Dylan Thomas's "In Country Sleep", The

The intellect has the ability to shift our attention in one of two directions: either outward toward the diversity of life, or inward toward the unity of consciousness....In this condition

of pragyaparadha

, the intellect becomes so absorbed in the diversified value of creation that it cannot perceive the underlying unity of life....(95)

Although there is no reason for believing that Thomas's vast reading extended deeply into Eastern philosophy, his Thief appears to personify "the mistake of the intellect": the Thief is that which the father believes will steal the girl's innocent enjoyment of all things wonderful. I mention this seeming convergence of Thomas's eclectic thought with an Eastern insight as an interesting, even illuminating parallel insofar as it suggests the depth of Thomas's exploration of the psyche's "darkness," upon which he, like Freud, sought to cast light.

15 Tindall conjectures along these lines that "The lawless sun' could be the world of fact and nature's apparent disorder. Is the father praying that, growing up and gaining knowledge of fact, the girl map keep her faith in the realities of the imagination...?" (280).

WORKS CITED

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Bold, Alan. "Young Heaven's Fold: The Second Childhood of Dylan Thomas." Dylan Thomas: Craft or Sullen Art. Ed. Alan Bold. New York: St. Martin's, 1990. 156-74.

Burdette, Robert K. The Saga of Prayer. The Hague: Mouton, 1972.

Campbell, Joseph and Henry Morton Robinson. A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. New York: Viking, 1944.

Ferris, Paul. Dylan Thomas. New York: Penguin, 1978.

Korg, Jacob. Dylan Thomas. New York: Twayne, 1965.

Milton, John. Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. Indianapolis: Odyssey, 1957.

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Murdy, Louise Baughan. Sound and Sense in Dylan Thomas' Poetry. The Hague: Mouton, 1966.

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Tindall, William York. A Reader's Guide to Dylan Thomas. New York: Noonday, 1962.

Thomas, Dylan. Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters. Ed. Paul Ferris. New York: Macmillan, 1985.

--. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. New York: New Directions, 1957

--. Dylan Thomas: Letters to Vernon Watkins. New York: New Directions, 1957.

--. The Poems of Dylan Thomas. Ed. Daniel Jones. New York: New Directions, 1971.

--. "Replies to an Enquiry." Quite Early One Morning. New York: New Directions, 1954. 188-190.

---. "Three Poems." Quite Earl One Morning. New York: New Directions, 1954. 177-187.

Tremlett, George. Dylan Thomas: In the Mercy of His Means. New York: St. Martin's, 1991.

Wallace, Robert Keith. The Physiology of Consciousness. Fairfield, IA: Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy, 1993.

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