Collected Poems [Paperback]

R S Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2000

A collection of R.S. Thomas's poems, published to mark his 80th birthday. Many of his themes are prophetic to issues such as technology and our use of it to destroy the natural world; and the search for personal and national identity and for meaning in human life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Harvest End
Abercuawg
Abersoch
The Absence
Absolution
Acting
Ad 2000
Adder
Adjustments
Affinity
Afforestation
After Jericho
Age
Aim
The Airy Tomb
Album
Aleph
Alive
All Right
Almost
Alpine
Amen
Amen
The Ancients Of The World
Andante
Ann Griffith
Anniversary
The Annunciation By Veneziano
The Answer
Ap Huw's Testament
Apostrophe
Approaches
April Song
Arrival
Arriving
Art History
Aside
Asides
Asking
Astronauts
At It
Aubade
Balance
The Bank
Barn Owl
Because
Becoming
The Belfry
Bent
Biography
A Blackbird Singing
Blondes
Boatmen
Border Blues
Borders
The Boy's Tale
Bravo!
Bread
The Bright Field
Brother
Burgos
The Bush
Cadenza
Calling
Captain Cook's Last Voyage; Roland Penrose
Careers
Carol
The Cast
Castaway
The Casualty
The Cat And The Sea
Centuries
Cezanne; The Card Players
The Chapel
Chapel Deacon
The Child's Brain; Giorgio Di Chirico
Children's Song
Christmas
Circles
The Combat
The Coming
Coming
Concession
The Conductor
The Cones
Confrontation
Contacts
The Conviction
Correspondence
Countering
A Country (1)
A Country (2)
Country Child
Country Church (manafon)
The Country Clergy
Country Cures
Court Order
Covenant
Covenanters: Jesus
Covenanters: Joseph
Covenanters: Lazarus
Covenanters: Mary
Covenanters: Paul
Cures
Cyclamen
Cynddylan On A Tractor
The Dance
The Dark Well
Dead Worthies
Death Of A Peasant
Death Of A Poet
Degas: Woman Combing
Degas; The Dancing Class
Depopulation Of The Hills
Deprivation
Destinations
Dialectic
Digest
Directions
Drawing By A Child; Diana Brinton Lee
Drowning
Earth
The Earth Does Its Best For Him
Echoes
Eheu! Fugaces
Emerging
Emerging
The Empty Church
Epiphany
The Epitaph
The Epitaph
The Evacuee
Evans
Exchange
Expatriates
Experiments
Fab;e
The Face
The Fair
Fair Day
Farm Child
Farm Wife
Father And Child; Ben Shahn
Female
Ffynnon Fair (st. Mary's Well)
The Figure
The Film Of God
The Fisherman
Fishing
The Flower
Flowers
The Fly
Folk Tale
For Instance
For The Record
Forest Dwellers
Formula
Fuel
Fugue For Ann Griffiths
Funeral
Gallery
The Game
The Gap (1)
The Gap (2)
The Gap In The Hedge
The Garden
Gauguin; Breton Village In The Snow
Genealogy
Gift
Gifts
God's Story
Gone
Gone?
Good
The Good Inn; Fritz Van Den Berghe
Gospel
Gospel Truth
Gradual
Grandparents
A Grave Unvisited
Green Categories
The Green Isle
Groping
Guernica (pablo Picasso)
H'm
Hafod Lom
The Hand
Harbour
He
He Agrees With Henry Ford
He And She
He Lies Down To Be Counted
The Hearth
Hebrews 12.29
Henry James
Here
Hestitations
Hill Christmas
The Hill Farmer Speaks
Hireling
His Condescensoins Are Short-lived
History (1)
History (2)
Hyddgen
I
Iago Prytherch (1)
Iago Prytherch (2)
If You Can Call It Living
In A Country Church
In Church
In Context
In Great Waters
In Memoriam E.e.t.
In Memory
Incense
Inside
The Interrogation
Invasion On The Farm
Invitation
The Island
Island
Islandmen
It Hurts Him To Think
Ivan Karamazov
Jerusalem
Jongkind; The Beach At Sainte-andresse
Judgment Day
Kierkegaard
The Kingdom
Kneeling
A Labourer
The Labourer
Lament For Prytherch
A Land
The Last Of The Peasantry
A Lecturer
A Life
A Line From St. David's
The Listener In The Corner
Llananno
Llanrhaeadr-ym-mochnant
Look Out
Looking At Sheep
Looking Glass
Lore
Lost Christmas
Loyalties
Madam
Maes-yr-onnen
The Maker
Making
Man And Tree
Manet; The Balcony
Marged
Marriage
A Marriage
Measure For Measure
Mediterranean
Meet The Family
Memories Of Yeats While Travelling To Holyhead
The Message
The Mill
The Minister
Minuet
The Mistress
The Moment
Monet; Portrait Of Madame Gaudibert
Montrose
The Moon In Lleyn
The Moor
Moorland
Mother And Child
Mother And Son
Movement
The Musician
Nativity
The New Mariner
Night Sky
Ninetieth Birthday
No
No Answer
No Through Road
Nocturne By Ben Shahn
Now
Nuclear
The Observer
Obstetrics
The Old Language
An Old Woman
Omens
On A Line In Sandburg
On A Portrait Of Joseph Hone By Augustus John
On Hearing A Welshman Speak
On The Farm
On The Threshold Of Liberty; Rene Magritte
Once
One Way
The Oracle; Giorgio Di Chirico
Other
The Other (1)
The Other (2)
Out Of The Hills
Out There
Pardon
Parent
The Parish
Passage
The Patriot
Pavane
A Peasant
Peasant Greeting
Perhaps
Period
Perspectives: Christian
Perspectives: Mediaeval
Perspectives: Modern
Perspectives: Neolithic
Perspectives: Primeval
Petition
Pharisee. Twentieth Century
Phew!
Pieta
Pilgrimages
Pisces
The Place
Plas Difancoll
Play
Pluperfect
The Poacher
A Poet
Poet's Address To The Businessmen
Poetry For Supper
The Porch
Portrait
Portrait Of A Girl In A Yellow Dress (henri Matisse)
Portrait Of Madame Renou; Andre Derain
Poste Restante
Postscript
Power
Praise
The Prayer
Prayer
Pre-cambrian
The Presence
Present
The Priest
Priest And Peasant
A Priest To His People
Probing
The Problem
Publicity Inc.
Questions (1)
The Red Model; Rene Magritte
Relations
Relay
Remembering David Jones
Reply
Requiem
Reservoirs
Resolution
Retirement
Retrospect
Return
The Return
Revision (1)
Revision (2)
Rhodri
The Rising Of Glyndwr
Ritual
The River
Roger Bacon
Roles
Rose Cottage
Rough
Sailor Poet
Sailors' Hospital
Salt
Saraband
Sarn Rhiw
Saunders Lewis
Schoonermen
The Sea
Sea-watching
Seaside
Senior
Servant
Service
Seventieth Birthday
Shadows
Sian
The Signpost
Similarities
Sir Gelli Meurig (elizabethan)
The Small Country
The Small Window
The Smile
Soliloquy
Somewhere
Somewhere To Go For A Laugh
The Son
Sonata
Song
Song At The Year's Turning
Song For Gwydion
Sorry
Souillac: Le Sacrifice D'abraham
Spring Equinox
Strands
Strangers
Study
Suddenly (1)
Suddenly (2)
The Survivors
Swifts
Synopsis
Taste
Tears
Tenancies
That
Their Canvases Are
There
They (1)
They (2)
A Thicket In Lleyn
Thirteen Blackbirds Look A Man
This One (1)
This One (2)
This To Do
Those Others
Thus
To A Young Poet
To Pay For His Keep
To The Farmer
Too Late
The Tool
Touching
Toulouse-lautrec; Justine Dieuhl
Traeth Maelgwn
Tramp
Travellers
Travels
The Tree
The Tree; Owen Glyn Dwr Speaks
The Truce
Truly
Truth
Two
Two Children Menaced By A Nightingale; Max Ernst
The Unborn Daughter
Unposted
The Untamed
The Unvanquished
Valediction
The Valley Dweller
Van Gogh; Portrait Of Dr. Gachet
Via Negativa
The View From The Window
The Village
The Visit
Vocabulary
Voices
Waiting
Waiting (1)
Waiting (2)
Wallace Stevens
Walter Llywarch
The Way Of It
Welcome
Welcome To Wales
Welsh
The Welsh Hill Country
Welsh History
Welsh Landscape
A Welsh Testament
A Welshman At St. James' Park
A Welshman To Any Tourist
West Coast
Where?
Which
Which?
The White Tiger
Who?
The Window
Within The Sound Of The Sea
The Woman
Woman Combing; Degas
The Wood
The Word
Young And Old
Ystrad Fflur (strata Florida)
Zero
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

R. S. Thomas was born in 1913. He has won numerous awards for his poetry, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1964. His autobiography, Neb, is published by J. M. Dent in September 1995. He died in 2000.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Paperbacks (October 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753811057
• ISBN-13: 978-0753811054
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.4 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #684,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wales and Christianity, March 16, 2002

By 

Manuel Haas - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collected Poems 1945-1990 (Phoenix Press) (Paperback)

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."

5.0 out of 5 stars For depth and delight, enjoy, November 25, 2011

By 

David T. Johnson "Agedavid" (Tampa Bay, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Collected Poems (Paperback)

R S Thomas has got to be in the top five poets of the 20th Century. If you're after confirmation of pleasing platitudes or gooey emotionalism, go elsewhere. These are poems rich in insight and surprising spiritual epiphanies.