Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
poetry tours, making Welsh-language poetry once again a popular medium of protest and
performance. Recent years have also seen an increasing crossover between Welsh and
English poetry and literature with poets and musicians, such as Twm Morys and Gwyneth
Glyn, establishing new audiences with their blend of words and music.
THE POETRY OF RS THOMAS
One of Wales' most passionate and most reclusive modern writers, the priest-turned-poet RS Thomas
(1913-2000), was an outspoken critic of the so-called Welsh 'cultural suicide' and a staunch supporter of unpopu-
lar causes. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996, his uncompromising work has a pure, sparse
style, which he used to explore his profound spirituality and the natural world.
RS Thomas was also more politically controversial than any other Welsh writer, becoming the Welsh conscien-
ce and campaigning fervently on behalf of indigenous language and culture. His unflinching support of Welsh is-
sues did not always extend to his compatriots, however, with him proclaiming at one point that they were 'an im-
potent people/sick with inbreeding/worrying the carcass of an old song'. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was
at the centre of a highly public row when he publicly praised the arsonists who firebombed English-owned holi-
day homes in Wales.
You can follow sites closely associated with Thomas around the Llŷn Peninsula, including the Aberdaron
church where he was the local vicar from 1967 to 1978.
