RS Thomas: Centenary since his birth
On the centenary of the birth of one of Wales' best known poets, RS Thomas, writer and broadcaster Phil Carradice takes a look at the man and his work.
Thomas was a rather austere, even bleak man, who learned to speak Welsh as an adult.
While he wrote prose in his adopted language, he wrote his poetry in English.
This inability to express himself poetically in Welsh was partly responsible for an inner turmoil that can be seen in much of his later work.
Ronald Stuart Thomas was born in Cardiff in and grew up as an English speaking child in Holyhead on Anglesey.
He trained in Cardiff as a priest for the Church in Wales. It was his time in Radnorshire, working as a parish clergyman, that stimulated some of his earliest and most memorable poetry.
The descriptions of hill farmers and "men of the land," notably Iago Prytherch and Cynddylan on his tractor, remain powerful images more than 50 years after they were first written.
THOMAS, RONALD STUART ( - ), poet and clergyman
Name: Ronald Stuart Thomas
Date of birth:
Date of death:
Gender: Male
Occupation: poet and clergyman
Area of activity: Poetry; Religion
Author: M. Wynn Thomas
R. S. Thomas was born in Cardiff on 29 March , the only son of Thomas Herbert Thomas (died ), a Cardiganshire sea-captain, and his wife Margaret (n&#;e Davies). Baptised plain Ronald Thomas, he added the classy 'Stuart' in early adulthood. His father's physical courage and early-onset deafness, and his mother's smothering affection were to be repeatedly blamed throughout his adult life for what he saw as the shortcomings in his own nature (such as lack of physical courage and supposed inability to love) with which he periodically wrestled in his poetry.
He was raised, however, from the age of five in Holyhead, Anglesey, solaced by the sea, and wandering the surrounding countryside that nurtured his solitary nature. It was with north Wales that he continued to identify strongly throughout a lifetime of service as a Welsh Anglican cleric that took him first over to Chirk (), Hanmer and Tallarn Green () and Manafon (), all on the Welsh border, before circl
Who was R. S. Thomas?
Ronald Stuart Thomas, published as 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. John Betjeman, in his introduction to Song at the Year's Turning, the first collection of Thomas’s poetry to be produced by a major publisher, predicted that Thomas would be remembered long after he himself was forgotten. M. Wynn Thomas said: "He was the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn of Wales because he was such a troubler of the Welsh conscience. He was one of the major English language and European poets of the 20th century."
- Born
- Mar 29,
Cardiff - Also known as
- Ronald Stuart Thomas
- R.S. Thomas
- Parents
- Spouses
- Children
- Religion
- Nationality
- Profession
- Education
- Died
- Sep 25,
Criccieth
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on July 23,
R. S. Thomas
R. S. Thomas () teemed with contradictions: a passionate advocate of Welsh nationalism he wrote in English and sent his son to boarding school in England; an undemonstrative man he composed the most tender elegies for his wife; a man of devout faith who all his life experienced the elusiveness of God; a poet who hardly ever left the narrow confines of north Wales but who at his death was hailed as a major European poet. This &#;troubler of the Welsh conscience&#; (Professor M. Wynn Thomas) was born in Cardiff, the only child of Huw, a captain in the merchant navy, and Margaret. In the family moved to Holyhead for his father&#;s work. Thomas grew up in an English-speaking household, only learning Welsh when he was thirty, a major cause of regret as he didn&#;t feel fluent enough to write poetry in his native tongue. He studied Classics at the University College of North Wales, Bangor and then undertook his theological training at St. Michael&#;s College, Llandaff, being ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church of Wales in From then until his retirement in Thomas&#;s ministry took him to a number of rural parishes in North Wales: the bleak beauty of the landscape
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