R.S. Thomas
One of the major British poetic voices of the 20th
century was born in Cardiff in 1913, although
nearly all his work was written in rural North Wales.
R.S. Thomas has a huge corpus of poetry to his name
that has earned respect all around the globe.
In 1996 Thomas was nominated for the Nobel Prize for
Literature, but he lost out to Seamus Heaney. However, after his
death at the age of 87, a memorial tribute was held in
Westminster Abbey, where. Heaney, who was his friend, read
the eulogy.
Cardiff is lucky today to have many poets alive and writing in both English and in Welsh. Perhaps the literary scene here has never been so dynamic.
Gwyneth Lewis
Nevertheless, probably one poet stands out today, who can
write very convincingly both in English and Welsh – a skill
that many strive for but few achieve. Her immortality has been
assured by having her words emblazoned across the
Millennium Centre, surely a mighty tribute both to her and to
the position that poetry still holds in Welsh society. This poet
is Gwyneth Lewis who was appointed Wales's first National
Poet in April 2005.
Gwyneth Lewis was born in 1959 in Cardiff and
academically and creatively shone from the beginning,
winning prizes in eisteddfodau and other competitions.
Having attended a bilingual school in Pontypridd and
studied English at Cambridge University, she went on to
study at Harvard and Columbia and then worked as a
freelance journalist in New York.
Gwyneth came back to Britain where she worked in television.
In 2001 she was awarded a £75,000 grant by the National
Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts to carry out
research and to sail to ports that are linked historically with the
inhabitants of her native city, Cardiff.
She has published an impressive amount of work, prose and
poetry, in both languages which has won prizes in England and
Wales.
Here is an example from Welsh Espionage
Close shave at the station when I asked my way.
Ticket collector quizzed me: Did I know
The pubs or the chapels better? Got away
With mumbling 'Neither' and then leaving fast.
I mustn't let on that I speak Welsh
Or they're sure to connect me with my past.
Her work can also be surrealistic as in The Hedge
I had brooches of newly built housing schemes
and sequins of coruscating shale;
power-lines crackled as they changed their course
and woodsmoke covered my face like a veil.
