Books: Welsh Rare One

COLLECTED POEMS (199 pp.)—Dylan Thomas—New Directions ($3.75).

Dylan Marlais Thomas, 38, is a chubby, bulb-nosed little Welshman with green eyes, a generally untidy air, and the finest lyrical talent of any poet under 40. When he settles down to guzzle beer, which is most of the time, his incredible yarns tumble over each other in a wild Welsh dithyramb in which truth and fact become hopelessly smothered in boozy invention. He borrows with no thought of returning what is lent, seldom shows up on time, is a trial to his friends and a worry to his family. But let him sit down...