Biography Essay

When Rupert Hart-Davis agreed to publish Song at the Year's Turning (1955), R. S. Thomas's collection of all his previous poems that he wished to preserve, it was decided that a well-known poetic figure should be asked to draw attention to the volume, and the services of John Betjeman were enlisted. In his dignified and sensitive introduction Betjeman remarked that "the 'name' which has the honour to introduce this fine poet to a larger public will be forgotten long before that of R. S. Thomas." Betjeman, who later became poet laureate (as well as Sir John), may have been excessively modest; nonetheless, R. S. Thomas, at that time barely known outside his native Wales, is now recognized as a prominent voice in British poetry of the second half of the twentieth century. Since David Jones's death in 1974, indeed, he has strong claims to be considered the most...