Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000) was a Welsh poet and Anglican Clergyman, noted for his nationalism and spirituality. He was the best known Welsh poet of his day.
Source: Wikipedia

The British Council is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.

Read the poem below and then do a comprehension activity and a vocabulary activity. When you have finished, do some writing yourself and see texts written by other users.

You can also listen to this poem:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
To download, right-click on the link above, choose 'Save target as', and select where you want to save the file. If you're a using a Mac, simply double-click on the link and use the on-screen window to select the file's destination.
If you want to listen on your PC, just left click and the file will play in your default player. For Mac users, click the link.
(See/print audioscript) (pdf doc)

Welsh Landscape

To live in Wales is to be conscious
At dusk of the spilled blood
That went into the making of the wild sky,
Dyeing the immaculate rivers
In all their courses.
It is to be aware,
Above the noisy tractor
And hum of the machine
Of strife in the strung woods,
Vibrant with sped arrows.
You cannot live in the present,
At least not in Wales.
There is the language for instance,
The soft consonants
Strange to the ear.
There are cries in the dark at night
As owls answer the moon,
And thick ambush of shadows,
Hushed at the fields' corners.
There is no present in Wales,
And no future;
There is only the past,
Brittle with relics,
Wind-bitten towers and castles
With sham ghosts;
Mouldering quarries and mines;
And an impotent people,
Sick with inbreeding,
Worrying the carcase of an old song.

top

Your turn

Write a poem about a landscape. Send it to us.

Your texts

My perfect landscape

I'm alive
My skin's intact
To restart
To make it different
I have expelled the problem
And nobody is going to eat that fruit again
My paradise
My perfect landscape.

Eric Ramirez Rodriguez

top