Identity and the National Voice in the Poetry of R. S. Thomas: A Thematic and Stylistic Approach

Abstract

(R)onald (S)tuart Thomas (1913 - 2000) has always been known• for his independence and individuality in regard to the literary fashions of the day. In fact the poet himself has expressed his position in a B. B. C. television interview in 1972. He stated that "any form of orthodoxy is just no part of a poet's province at all ... After all what is today's orthodoxy is tomorrow's antiquity."1 In comparison with his

contemporary fellow poets, R. S. Thomas occupies a peculiar place, because his link with the literary trends of the century is not as congenial as his bond with the Anglo-Welsh school with peculiar interests. Robert Bernard suggests that "two poets have stood outside the swings and counter swings of poetic fashion - such independence is not easy in British literature - [they] are R.S. Thomas and Seamus Heaney, both of whose work is rooted in Celtic fringes of the islands."2 . R. S. Thomas's poetry reflects a profound rural Celtic touch, where the poet describes himself as a mystic poet of nature. W. J. Kieth includes Thomas in the last chapter of his book, The Poetry of Nature, in which he argues that "Thomas represents an association with the English tradition of nature poetry not dissimilar to Robert Frost but with palpable Welshness."3

Consequently, Wales is the poet's first concern especially in his early poetry. R. George Thomas, comparing R. S. Thomas with his contemporaries, finds that he "is specifically concerned with one small area of recognizably Welsh life and is motivated by a desire to capture the essential quality of the national voice."4 For this reason, R. S. Thomas has often been described as a regionalist whose poetry hardly transcends the limitation of place. C. A. Runcie pointed out