Thomas, R S

▪ 2001

      Welsh clergyman and poet (b. March 29, 1913, Cardiff, Glamorgan [now South Glamorgan], Wales—d. Sept. 25, 2000, Llanfairynghornwy, Gwynedd, Wales), wrote about the land and its people and about religious faith in the modern world. His poetry was austere and wholly lacking in sentimentality, but it was sometimes lyrical and often witty. He had an anglicized upbringing in Holyhead and was educated at the University College of North Wales in Bangor, where he earned a B.A. in classics in 1935. He studied theology at St. Michael's College, Llandaff, in Cardiff and was ordained a priest in the Church in Wales in 1937. His first appointments were in the borderland, but he later served churches in the west and north of Wales, in the heart of the nationalist movement. It was not until he was in his late 20s that he began to learn Welsh, and his poetry was written in English. His few writings in Welsh were in prose, primarily autobiographical essays collected in Neb (1985; “Nobody”) and published in English translation in 1997 as Autobiographies. His earlier poems, collected in volumes such as The Stones of the Field (1946), Song at the Year's Turning (1955), and Tares (1961), were largely concerned with life on Welsh hill farms, with many employing the persona Iago Prytherch. Thomas vehemently opposed the English influence on Wales, but he was equally critical of the Welsh neglect of their own culture. Later collections, including Laboratories of the Spirit (1975), Mass for Hard Times (1992), and No Truce with the Furies (1995), showed a heightened concern with religious and philosophical matters. He also edited the works of other poets. Honours included the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1964 and the Cheltenham Prize in 1993, and in 1996 the Welsh Academy nominated him for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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