R. S. Thomas was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest
who was noted for his nationalism, spirituality and deep dislike of the Anglicisation of Wales. The turning of Welsh culture into English
culture is what is meant by the word Anglicisation here. He died in 2000 aged
87 having worked as a vicar all of his life. He was born into an
English-speaking family and only learned to speak the Welsh language when he
was 30 years old. His poetry is all in English. He was convinced that
Englishness was ruining Wales.
I love his poems because they are blunt
and terse. They are not jolly or fun. He paints a picture of a hard life – he
and his wife lived without modern electrical appliances – but he seems to see a
purity in that. His Welsh landscapes are like the Cumbrian farming landscapes
(and remember that Cumbria gets its name because its inhabitants used to speak
Welsh – Cymraeg – 1500 years ago). That purity made him think about his
spiritual life.
So don’t read these poems for
entertainment. Expect to be challenged and maybe changed. They are short so
they can be read several times to help you to digest his ideas.
