COLLECTED POEMS: 1934-1953

This will be an important item for serious devotees of ultra-modern verse. It is the first collection of Mr. Thomas' verse which, to date, has already been on view only in the avant garde magazines, who do not seem to object to the poet's constantly violent imagery, his studied alliteration, his sprung rhythms (after Gerard Manley Hopkins), and his perpetual flirtations with Death and Sex. It will be heavy going to most who have not been reared in the tradition of T.S. Eliot ellipsis. The occasional clean and uncluttered lines like ""...and half drops down/ Slow in a sleeping wind"" will come too infrequently for most. Those who read these verses may identify the author with his own line ""Shut, too, in a tower of words I work....