M. Wynn Thomas is Professor of English and Emyr Humphreys Professor of English at Swansea University; he is a Fellow of the British Academy and the author of twenty books on the two literatures of Wales and on American poetry.

M. Wynn Thomas, with his usual wry wit and poetic perception, walks the path around the distant and rugged terrain of R. S. Thomas. This book is like light through a prism, the whole spectrum of the poet’s hints, ambiguities and shards on full view, and admired with such a passionate and joyful questioning. No one reads between R.S.’s lines with such clarity, and to read this book is a teasing delight to both the parched soul and roving mind.

• 1. Introduction2. Light ‘thick as honey among the grasses’3. The Real Manafon?4. Bury my heart at Abercuawg5. Cultural Warrior6. The dislocated imagination: R.S. Thomas and Geoffrey Hill7. Unfamiliar Affections8. The spoor of the spirit: R.S.Thomas’s Apostolic Successor9. Coda: R.S.Thomas, Desperado

M. Wynn Thomas is Professor of English and Emyr Humphreys Professor of English at Swansea University; he is a Fellow of the British Academy and the author of twenty books on the two literatures of Wales and on American poetry.

M. Wynn Thomas, with his usual wry wit and poetic perception, walks the path around the distant and rugged terrain of R. S. Thomas. This book is like light through a prism, the whole spectrum of the poet’s hints, ambiguities and shards on full view, and admired with such a passionate and joyful questioning. No one reads between R.S.’s lines with such clarity, and to read this book is a teasing delight to both the parched soul and roving mind.

• 1. Introduction2. Light ‘thick as honey among the grasses’3. The Real Manafon?4. Bury my heart at Abercuawg5. Cultural Warrior6. The dislocated imagination: R.S. Thomas and Geoffrey Hill7. Unfamiliar Affections8. The spoor of the spirit: R.S.Thomas’s Apostolic Successor9. Coda: R.S.Thomas, Desperado