R. S. Thomas: Everyman Poetry (Everyman Poetry Library)

(This summary is already made)

If you have ever been in the Welsh countryside, you will know how to hear these poems. They are reflections that arise on a long morning walk along a field nearly lost in a lingering fog. They often sigh, not in resignation, but in a realisation that the ordinary is the outer shell of the extraordinary. Don't gobble the poems in one sitting. Take your time. Listen to them. Thomas speaks from the soul to the soul.

Thomas's poems combine the Romantic sentiments of Wordsworth with the haunting qualities of Arnold. They are gentle and powerful at the same time. I had never realized there was another poet named Thomas in Wales, but I am glad that I found this one, too. What a wonderful surprise!

R.S. Thomas brings water to my soul. His words are honest and true. His poetry is precise and incredibly concentrated. I believe that every person should read him. This collection is a great place to start.

I just didn't care for the book. Disappointing. It is moody & dark. Even good words of love, marriage, seasons, are encased, restricted & scented & shaded with shadows of despair, sadness, discouragement, ......just cold & hopeless. The more I read, the less inclined I was to keep going.

The reality of faith in a world of doubt. The reality of doubt in a world of faith. Excellent.

Amazing writer. Cuts to the heart

This Welsh rural Church minister wrote psychologically insightful poetry about the physically bleak lives of the old peasant farmers, and the spiritually bleak lives of the younger generation and the English newcomers who had given themselves over to the age of the Machine. Decay is everywhere,"the smashed facesof the stone farms with the stone trickleof their tears down the hills' side."He wrestles with his own religious doubt in a time of religious decay, seeing God's church as a"stone trapfor him, enticing him with candles,as though he would come like some huge mothout of the darkness to beat there. (...)He will not come any moreto our lure. Why, then, do I kneel still?"His religious sense of landscape and blood sacrifice makes even his Christian imagery seem closer to the druids. Personally ascetic, he and his long-suffering wife allowed no appliances in the house as they fought the Machine. But Thomas' understanding of the science of the natural world was so incorrect (he thought the dark phase of the moon was caused by its moving through the Earth's shadow; he thought that something "in orbit" was "out of the reach of gravity's control") that his opinions about anything scientific are valueless.Nominated for the Nobel Prize more than once, his poetry is not to everyone's taste. It is like his own description of "An Old Woman":"Sharp as a bird, and now and then she laughs,A high, shrill, mirthless laugh, half cough, half whistle,Tuneless and dry as east wind through a thistle."

I had always taken to the older British writers. And I am impressed by this man.It ain't bad!

It was a gift for my husband

new or old to poetry this will take you on a very direct route and the destination is always you and God - whatever you perceive God is; and maybe Mr Thomas knew a little bit about this mystery. I especially like his poetry because it is so raw and fresh and clean like the sea washing over you, with the smell of brine and salt but with the cleansing of the green.

I really like RS Thomas' style and these poems are lovely to read and meditate upon. Thomas does not mince his words and can appear to be a grumpy old man at times but his observation of life is wonderfully accurate and superbly written.

This is one of my favourite poets. He creates images in my mind, and there's usually a twist at the end of his poems that really grabs the attention.