{"id":13495,"date":"2025-03-05T12:08:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T12:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/?p=13495"},"modified":"2025-03-05T12:08:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T12:08:57","slug":"professor-john-goodby-inaugural-lecture-a-saint-about-to-fall-reflections-on-poetry-and-the-study-of-dylan-thomas-wednesday-14-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/professor-john-goodby-inaugural-lecture-a-saint-about-to-fall-reflections-on-poetry-and-the-study-of-dylan-thomas-wednesday-14-may-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor John Goodby Inaugural Lecture: ‘A saint about to fall’: reflections on poetry and the study of Dylan Thomas – Wednesday 14 May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join Hallam’s Professor of Arts and Culture John Goodby<\/a>, as he explores the vivid life and legacy of Dylan Thomas, one of the twentieth century’s most memorable and compelling lyric poets.<\/p>\n

Thomas is still best known for his wild lifestyle and as the author of lyrics such as ‘Fern Hill’ and ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’, and of\u00a0Under Milk Wood<\/em>. Yet his popular reputation is in many ways a partial and misleading one, disguising the true scope and nature of his achievement.<\/p>\n

Tracing his own personal journey through Thomas’s work over more than two decades, John will reveal Thomas’s roots as a radically experimental artist, and examine their relation to the maverick persona of legend. Thomas’s unique versatility in elite and popular cultural forms, and his gifts as both a serious and comic writer, will be related to his hybrid Anglo-Welsh origins and troubled, often apocalyptic times.<\/p>\n

In doing so, John will draw out some of the parallels between Thomas’s historical contexts and his literary concerns – with revolution, gender roles, surrealism, the threat of fascism and war, ecological destruction – and those of our own era, in order to suggest what significance his potent example might have for us today. Don\u2019t miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of Thomas and his impact on literature and culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join Hallam’s Professor of Arts and Culture John Goodby, as he explores the vivid life and legacy of Dylan Thomas, one of the twentieth century’s most memorable and compelling lyric poets. Thomas is still best known for his wild lifestyle and as the author of lyrics such as ‘Fern Hill’ and ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20701,"featured_media":13496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[2155,1725,1889,181,958,1773,201],"class_list":["post-13495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-ccri","tag-dylan-thomas","tag-headerslider","tag-inaugural-lecture","tag-john-goodby","tag-seminar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2025\/03\/Staff-profile-John-Goodby.jpg?fit=650%2C650&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8oFHo-3vF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12454,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/goodby-events-seventieth-anniversary-death-dylan-thomas\/","url_meta":{"origin":13495,"position":0},"title":"Professor John Goodby contributing to three events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the death of poet Dylan Thomas","author":"Amy Lander","date":"14\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Professor John Goodby (Professor of Arts and Culture, Sheffield Hallam University) will be a main contributor to three upcoming events that are being held to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the death of poet Dylan Thomas in 1953. Thursday 19 October 2023 - \u2018Dylan Thomas: 70 Years On\u2019 talk in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/09\/SHU-edit-Goodby-Blog-header-image-2.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/09\/SHU-edit-Goodby-Blog-header-image-2.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/09\/SHU-edit-Goodby-Blog-header-image-2.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/09\/SHU-edit-Goodby-Blog-header-image-2.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13095,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/john-goodby-speaking-on-dylan-thomas-at-various-events-this-spring-summer\/","url_meta":{"origin":13495,"position":1},"title":"John Goodby speaking on Dylan Thomas at various events this Spring\/Summer!","author":"lh1112","date":"21\/05\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On Friday 17 May, John Goodby spoke at Worcester College Oxford on Dylan Thomas. This was a joint academic and cultural event, with a lecture and a song-setting recital. More information can be found here. He also delivered a talk on Saturday 18 May on Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2024\/05\/afu1funwvbwwgvejurmk.jpg?fit=800%2C254&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2024\/05\/afu1funwvbwwgvejurmk.jpg?fit=800%2C254&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2024\/05\/afu1funwvbwwgvejurmk.jpg?fit=800%2C254&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2024\/05\/afu1funwvbwwgvejurmk.jpg?fit=800%2C254&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11097,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/dylan-thomas-expert-john-goodby-on-radio-4-with-melvyn-bragg\/","url_meta":{"origin":13495,"position":2},"title":"Dylan Thomas expert, John Goodby, on Radio 4 with Melvyn Bragg","author":"lh1112","date":"15\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We're excited to share the news that Hallam's\u00a0Professor John Goodby\u00a0will be\u00a0a guest on Melvyn Bragg's\u00a0In Our Time\u00a0programme, on\u00a0BBC Radio 4\u00a0this Thursday 16 June at 9.00 am. John is the leading international\u00a0expert on Dylan Thomas' work\u00a0and as In\u00a0Our Time has an audience of two\u00a0million, this makes his contribution even more significant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Professor John Goodby","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2022\/06\/a4b27eb3-7977-4fa7-8743-19e175f9249b.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2022\/06\/a4b27eb3-7977-4fa7-8743-19e175f9249b.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2022\/06\/a4b27eb3-7977-4fa7-8743-19e175f9249b.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2022\/06\/a4b27eb3-7977-4fa7-8743-19e175f9249b.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12756,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/york-late-music-goodby-dylan-thomas\/","url_meta":{"origin":13495,"position":3},"title":"“I Sang in my Chains like the Sea” – Newly-commissioned settings of seven Dylan Thomas poems staged as part of York Late Music series, co-organised by Professor John Goodby","author":"Ian Braddick","date":"08\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"On Saturday 04 November, \"I Sang in my Chains like the Sea\" took place involving the performance of newly-commissioned settings of seven Dylan Thomas poems by five composers. The event, co-organised by Professor John Goodby as part of an ongoing collaborative project with the composer David Lancaster (York St John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12750,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/goodby-bclt-at-uea\/","url_meta":{"origin":13495,"position":4},"title":"‘Translation and Stylistic Variation’ – Professor John Goodby speaks at British Centre for Literary Translation research seminar","author":"Ian Braddick","date":"20\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"On Wednesday 15 November Professor John Goodby was one of two experts on Irish poetry and poetry translation, together with Dr Francis Jones of Newcastle University, invited to speak at a research seminar in the series run by the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) at UEA; this event centred\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"BCLT Research Seminar - Translation and Stylistic Variation (Helen Gibson with Francis Jones and John Goodby) - 15 November 2023","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/11\/Translation-and-Stylistic-Variation-UEA.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/11\/Translation-and-Stylistic-Variation-UEA.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/11\/Translation-and-Stylistic-Variation-UEA.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/files\/2023\/11\/Translation-and-Stylistic-Variation-UEA.png?fit=890%2C290&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12555,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/off-the-shelf-ccri-sheffield-hallam-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":13495,"position":5},"title":"Off The Shelf: Researchers from CCRI contribute to the UK’s largest Humanities Festival, 13-29 October 2023","author":"Amy Lander","date":"13\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Off the Shelf Festival of Words, one of the most well-known and loved literary festivals in the UK, will return to Sheffield for its 32nd edition from 13- 29 October, bringing together the best of local, regional, and international literary talent for the 2023 programme of events. Delivered by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13497,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13495\/revisions\/13497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/c3riimpact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}