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I heard from inside his protests and rattlings, the sing-song whine of his voice, the stamping of his small, patent-leather shoes, his favourite swearwords - he swore, violently and privately, like a collier used to thinking in the dark - and I let him in.
Dylan Thomas, 'Old Garbo,' from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, New Directions, 1955, p. 118.
TIME: Early 20th c.
PLACE: Wales
CIRCUMSTANCE: the lavatory door is stuck
The broad vowels of the town were narrowed in, the rise and fall of the family accent were caught and pressed.
Dylan Thomas, 'Old Garbo,' from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, New Directions, 1955, p. 121.
TIME: early 20th c.
PLACE: Wales
CIRCUMSTANCE: a young man cultivates a new accent.
He wished that the light would fail. In the darkness he and Lou could creep beneath the clothes and imitate the dead. Who would look for them there, if they were dead still and soundless?
The others would shout to them down the dizzy stairs or rummage in the silence about the narrowed, obstacled corridors or stumble out into the night to search for them among the cranes and ladders in the desolation of the destroyed houses. He could hear, in the made-up dark, Mr O'Brien's voice cry, 'Lou,where are you? Answer! Answer!' the hollow answer of the echo, 'answer!' and bear her lips in the cool pit of the bed secretly move around another name and feel them move.
Dylan Thomas, 'One Warm Saturday,' from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, New Directions, 1955, p. 155.
TIME: early 20th c.
PLACE: Wales
CIRCUMSTANCE: two lovers
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