Criticism of Dylan Thomas has tended to rest too heavily on the assumption that his poems are primarily a reflection of his inner psychological troubles. With Liberating Dylan Thomas, Rhian Barfoot undertakes the challenge of freeing Thomas from such constraints, analyzing the poetry instead on its own terms and identifying the sophisticated conception of the possibilities and limitations of language that underpin Thomas’s complex practice.

Barfoot highlights the sensuous quality of the poems and Thomas’s exhilarating, demanding linguistic innovations. By separating Thomas the unforgettable figure from the work he created, Barfoot allows us to appreciate his poetry anew.