R. S. Thomas Identity, Environment, Deity [Paperback]

Christopher Morgan writes with keen critical insight on the controversial poet R. S. Thomas, considered to be one of the leading writers of the twentieth century. This is the first book to treat Thomas's entire oeuvre and will prove to be an indispensible guide and companion to the complete poems.

The book is divided into three parts, each of which interprets the development of a major theme over Thomas's twenty-seven volumes, probing particular themes and particular poems with a meticulous insight. The book also treats Thomas's work as a complex and interrelated whole, as a body of work that comprises a single artistic achievement, and assesses that achievement within the context of an array of major literary figures from Montaigne to Seamus Heaney and Wallace Stevens.

R. S. Thomas: Identity, environment, deity proves invaluable as a beginner's introduction to the Welsh poet, as a student's guide to critical thinking about the poet's work, and as a provocative new step in scholarly studies.

Introduction

PART ONE: Elusive Identities

1. Poetry as autobiography

2. 'No-one with a crown of light'

PART TWO: A poetics of environment

3. 'Green asylum': the natural world

4. 'Lenses to bear': the scientific world

5. Science and nature

PART THREE: Expanding deity

6. Theologies and beyond

7. Absence and presence

Bibliography

Works by R. S. Thomas

Other works cited

Further reading

Christopher Morgan has taught in the University of Aberystwyth and now teaches English in the United States