Long before Dylan Thomas became one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century, his relationship with writing was already intense and, as new research shows, more complicated than believed.
Recent findings suggest that while still a schoolboy in Swansea, Thomas repeatedly published poems that were not his own. The discovery was made during the preparation of a new comprehensive edition of his poetry, when editor and publisher Alessandro Gallenzi began examining Thomas’s earliest contributions to his school magazine.
What first seemed like a charming glimpse into the poet’s youth quickly turned into something more startling. After transcribing and comparing the poems, Gallenzi and his editorial team realized that at least a dozen were copied almost word-for-word from pieces published years earlier. Some estimates suggest the total number of plagiarised poems could be closer to two dozen.
The material came from Swansea Grammar School’s magazine, where Thomas was a prolific contributor after enrolling at age eleven. One striking example involved a poem published under Thomas’s name in a local newspaper in 1927. It was virtually identical to a poem written five years earlier by Lillian Gard and printed in Boy’s Own Paper. In another case, Thomas had a poem published in the same national magazine, though it appeared in an earlier issue.
For Gallenzi, the discovery was both shocking and fascinating. What troubled him most was not just the copying, but what it revealed about the young writer’s inner world. He believes Thomas was driven by insecurity, ambition, and a desire to stand out in a demanding school environment. His father being an English teacher at the school may also have added pressure to perform and succeed.
At the same time, Thomas was writing original poems, and there is a clear overlap between his authentic voice and the borrowed lines. According to Gallenzi, this makes the period even more intriguing. Even while copying, Thomas was already developing the language, rhythm, and intensity that would later define his mature work.
Rather than removing the plagiarized pieces from the record, the editors of the upcoming Dylan Thomas – The Complete Poems have chosen to include them in an appendix. They see the poems as an important window into the poet’s early ambitions and experiments, a portrait of a teenager testing boundaries as he searched for his own voice. These school magazine poems will also be displayed at Thomas’s birthplace in Swansea, allowing visitors to see both the borrowed and original versions side by side. The museum’s curator, Geoff Haden, has said the revelation does not come as a complete surprise, noting that a few such cases were already known.
For literary historians, the findings do not diminish Dylan Thomas’s later genius. Instead, they add depth to our understanding of how a young, driven writer struggled, imitated, and ultimately found his unique voice, a reminder that even the greatest artists often begin by borrowing before they learn to truly speak for themselves.