Poetry is, at bottom, a criticism of life. M. Arnold (MEG 102) (DYLAN THOMAS)

Dylan Thomas had a complex and multifaceted view of poetry, and it is difficult to distill it down to a single statement. However, it is possible to compare his perspective with that of Matthew Arnold, who famously defined poetry as "a criticism of life."

On the surface, Thomas's view of poetry appears to diverge significantly from Arnold's. Thomas was not particularly concerned with offering a critique of society or of the human condition, and his work often celebrated the beauty and vitality of life in all its messy, unpredictable glory. He was less interested in offering intellectual or moral guidance than in capturing the essence of human experience through his use of language.

However, it is also true that Thomas's work often grappled with the darker aspects of life, including death, loss, and the passing of time. In this sense, his poetry could be seen as a kind of implicit criticism of the limitations and transience of human existence. Thomas did not set out to explicitly condemn or praise particular aspects of society, but his work often resonated with readers precisely because of its ability to capture the complex and sometimes contradictory emotions that are part of the human experience.

Ultimately, Thomas's view of poetry was more concerned with the power of language to evoke intense emotions and create vivid sensory experiences than with offering any kind of overt critique of life. However, his work did contain elements of reflection and commentary on the human condition, and in this sense, it could be seen as sharing some of the qualities that Arnold attributed to poetry as a form of critique.