The Page's Drift: R.S. Thomas at 80

by Thomas, M. Wynn

• ISBN13: 9781854110930
• ISBN10: 1854110934
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: Seren

Summary

R.S. Thomas is one of the most important poets of the post-war period, 'the most resolute religious poetry this century' (TLS). His influence on British poetry is enormous, while the variety of his themes: disappearing ways of life; man's relationship with God; cultural imperialism; the crisis in Welsh identity; nature and the environment, has brought him a wide and popular audience. The author of more than twenty volumes, his massive Collected Poems appeared in 1993. The Page's Drift is a celebration of R.S. Thomas's eightieth birthday and his long writing career. The specially commissioned essays range across the Thomas canon, from his Welsh hill farmer persona Iago Prytherch, to a comparison with Dylan Thomas, to his unsteady relations with God. Admirers of R.S. Thomas's work, and those coming to it for the first time, will find this book an invaluable and informative guide.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
'The One'
Abbreviations
Introduction	p. 9
'Some Uncollected Poems and Variant Readings from the Early Work of R.S. Thomas'	p. 22
'The Uses of Prytherch'	p. 36
'R.S. Thomas and Painting'	p. 57
'"Adult geometry": Dangerous Thoughts in R.S. Thomas'	p. 82
'"The Verbal Hunger": the Use and Significance of "Gaps" In the Poetry of R.S. Thomas'	p. 99
'The Self and the Other: the Autobiographical Element in the Poetry of R.S. Thomas'	p. 119
"'Over Seventy Thousand Fathoms": the Sea and Self-definition in the poetry of R.S. Thomas'	p. 148
'Bright Fields, Loud Hills and the Glimpsed Good Place: R.S. Thomas and Dylan Thomas'	p. 171
'R.S. Thomas and Wales'	p. 211
'The Poet'	p. 221
Bibliography	p. 222
Notes on Contributors	p. 226
Index	p. 229
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