Famous as the best known home of Dylan Thomas (who was born and brought up in Swansea), the romantic Boat House is perched on stilts at the water's edge. The poet made it his home from 1937 until his death (in America in 1953) and it is appropriately enough, said to harbour the ghost of the portly poet and author of Under milk wood. Indeed the "Llareggub" (possibly the reverse spelling of Dylan's philosophy?) of his remarkable and haunting "play for voices" was in large part Laugharne, the ancient little township that was at one time a flourishing port. This is one of the few towns in Wales where there is consistent architectural charm; nearly every house erflects the elegance of the 18th century. The tiny town hall, rebuilt in 1746 has great beauty…. Dylan loved Laugharne, and it would seem almost inevitable that he left his impression in and around the boat house for he spent many happy times there. He also spent many times there worrying about money, work, writing and re-writing, revising and revising and polishing until he achieved what he called "poetic truth" as he himself told the original writer of this article on the one occasion they met. Dylan was a brilliant little man whose head was stuffed with legend and myth, for whom applause meant everything, sometimes even more than words. Strange happenings have been reported in the vicinity of the boathouse at Laugharne from time to time. There are those who say they have glimpsed the unmistakable untidy figure of the poet in the mid-afternoon at a corner of the boathouse or beside the shack where he worked. Are these fleeting sightings no more than imagination personified? Who knows. His death was untimely and his soul, tormented as it was, surely lurks under Milk Wood and his beloved Sir John's Hill. The background photo is the actual shack where Dylan Thomas used to write when in Laugharne.
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