Hearers and Doers

The Bible: A Medium that Sometimes Hides the Message?

One of the subjects I studied in my senior years at school was English Literature. This included Shakespeare - of course - and in my case Dylan Thomas. What the two had in common, to my 17-year old perception, was that they made absolutely no sense. I saw words on the page, but apart from a few random phrases they were incomprehensible to me. I was fine with “When shall we three meet again - in thunder, lightning or in rain?” Or “Is this a dagger I see before me, its handle toward my hand?” but for the most part I was lost. I just couldn’t get a handle on the text - it was like standing at the foot of a cliff you’re supposed to climb and failing to find even the first foothold. Without some clue to sense and plot I couldn’t establish context, and thus the next paragraph or verse was even stranger. I still have my A-Level copy of The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas with my schoolboy scribblings in the margin. “This makes no sense!” “What is he talking about?”

So how come by 30 I had come to appreciate Dylan Thomas to the point of obsession and to understand the essential plot - and the rich beauty - of many of Shakespeare’s plays? How did the same words that had baffled me come later to inspire me?