David Aaronovitch talks about Under Milk Wood

In today's Times David Aaronovitch talks about Under Milk Wood describing it as "the finest prose poem in the English language".

He is entitled to his opinion. 

I rather suspect this is a trite judgement of the "best song ever" variety - best until a week or so later when the self-appointed expert hears a better one.

In any case, it is a radio play not a poem (unless you are stretching poetry to its most inclusive limit in which case we must allow even the columns of David Aaronovitch to qualify as poetry). 

And it is unfinished, which causes structural problems. 

But it is his application of nationalist affiliation to works of art that I find most disturbing.

Even in 1954 the language of the poem was described as "Anglo-Welsh".

The Welsh language purists insisted that Llareggub was spelt Llaregyb despite the fact that Llareggub is Buggerall backwards - hardly an example of "the cadences and sounds of Welsh".

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4100016.ece