Dylan Thomas and Emily Brontë

Abstract

I was reading a good deal in the (British) Museum at this time, and used to spend my lunch hours drifting about the manuscript room. It is always thrilling to see a page of the original Don Juan, or something in Keats's own handwriting. I never tired of it. One day, in an unfrequented corner of the room, I sawwhat I took to be a page of Dylan Thomas. I was surprised to find it was a page of an Emily Bronte MS, and I was so struck with the similarity that I bought a sixpenny facsimile and posted it to Thomas. The next day he wrote: 'Strange that facsimile by E.B. I thought it was a rejected poem of mine when I opened it. Yes, it's my handwriting, and I can read every word of it'. A day or two after this I happened on a picture of the three Bronte girls (is it by Branwell, unfinished?) and I was struck by the resemblance between Emily and Dylan Thomas. The dark, slightly popping eyes, the toneless skin and dark hair . . . I told him about it, and he was amused and delighted; and when I accused him of being a reincarnation of her he agreed at once and added: 'And what is so strange about that? She's the only woman I've ever loved!'