The People and Landscape of the Welsh Hillcountry :: R.S. Thomas Poems Poetry Essays

The People and Landscape of the Welsh Hillcountry R.S. doubting Thomas writes about the people and landscape of the Welshhillcountry. By referring closely to at least two of his poems, showhow he makes the Welsh countryside and its inhabitants vivid to thereader.RS Thomas was born in Cardiff in 1913. He was a Parish priest inWales for more than 20 years. During this time he taught himself theWelsh language in order to understand the remote hill farmers that areunder his care.He writes almost exclusively about the people and landscape of theWelsh hill country. The poems that he writes are lacking in mentalemotion but they neer lack tender or compassion for the massively great(p)working farmers he knows so well. The landscape that Thomasdescribes so well reflects the grimness of the mens lives.The peoples lives are never sweetened nor ro soldieryticized and the poethas no illusions on its harshness. Yet he has a deep understanding forthe hill country and its workers. This shows that R.S Thomas canrelate to the Welsh hill country very well.The first poem that I am writing about is called The Hill FarmerSpeaks. This poem talks about the life of a farmer who has beengreatly affected by his work. The first verse of this poem talksabout a man who has no love and no friends. This we learn is becauseof the land as it says, I am the farmer stripped of love and thoughtand grace by the lands hardness. This shows the hard work that theman has done over the years has taken from him his love, thought andgrace it is also a metaphor making this vivid for the reader. But hewants us to know that he is still a human by saying, Listen, listen,I am a man like you. Alliteration is used here(predicate) (listen, listen), tocause the affect that the man really is talking to you. The sameaffect is caused when he says, But what I am saying. It shows youthat the mans surroundings are very desolate and hostile by it saying,Desolate areas rough with dew. This is also a metaphor showing i tsvividness to the reader.The second verse of this poem tells us of the wind vent over the hillpastures, hill pastures being a feature of any hill farm. After thishe says, Year after year, making this process bet constant. In thenext three lines there seems to be a link between the ewes and thefarmer, where it says, The ewes starve, milkless, for want of the new