Collected Poems, 1945-1990

by R.S. Thomas

Book Overview

Published to mark the poet's 80th birthday, this collection confirms R. S. Thomas as our pre-eminent poet. 'This is the book I've been waiting for' Ted Hughes This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0753811057
• ISBN13: 9780753811054
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Phoenix (USA)
• Length: 548 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Wales and Christianity

Welshman R.S. Thomas is the author of some of the most memorable religious poetry of the century. As a clergyman in rural Wales Thomas had to face a country and a church in decline; this inspired poetry of an austere beauty. The poem "The Bright Field" seems to me to capture the essence of Thomas' poetry: "I have seen the sun break through / to illuminate a small field / for a while, and gone my way / and forgotten it. But that was the pearl / of great price, the one field that had / the treasure in it. I realize now / that I must give all that I have / to possess it. Life is not hurrying // on to a receding future, nor hankering after / an imagined past. It is the turning / aside like Moses to the miracle / of the burning bush, to a brightness / that seemed as transitory as your youth / once, but is the eternity that awaits you."