Press,1997); John Pikoulis, ‘Lynette Roberts and Alun
Lewis’, (
Poetry Wales
1983, 19/2); ‘The Poetry of the Second World War’, in
British Poetry 1900–50
, ed. Gary Day and Brian Docherty (London: Macmillan, 1995). Nigel Wheale, ‘Lynette
Roberts: Legend and Form in the 1940s’,
Critical Quarterly
(1994, 36/3); ‘“Beyond the Trauma Stratus”: Lynette Roberts’
Gods with Stainless Ears
and the Post-War Cultural Landscape’,
Welsh Writing in English
, vol. 3 (1997). Among poets, her work has been of interest principally to those of
an ‘ experimental ’ or ‘avant-garde’ temper. For a profound and updated engagement with Roberts’s themes
and manner, see John Wilkinson’s poem ‘Sarn Helen’, subtitled ‘Homage to Lynette Roberts and for Friends in Swansea’.
2 Lewis’s poem for Roberts was ‘Peace’ in
Raiders’ Dawn
(1941), an unsettling and oblique poem with a final note of optimism. She told him
‘My poem is real i.e. true of the everyday things I do. Yours is mythical’, and the
poetic exchange is all the more poignant for the fact that three years later Lewis
would be dead. Alun Lewis’s letters to Roberts and Keidrych Rhys appear in
Wales
(February/March, 1948, VIII/28). For an account of the friendship between Lynette
Roberts and Alun Lewis, see John Pikoulis’s essay in the
Poetry Wales
special issue on Lynette Roberts. In the same issue Tony Conran’s essay ‘Lynette
Roberts: The Lyric Pieces’ discusses Roberts’s connections with the Welsh-language
poetic tradition.
3
The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas
, ed. Paul Ferris (London: Dent, 1985), p. 418.
4 Ibid.
5 Quoted in
Poetry Wales
, Lynette Roberts special issue, p. 14.
6 Keidrych Rhys,
The Van Pool and Other Poems
(London: Routledge, 1942), p. 9.
7
Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas
, p. 419.
8 I am grateful to Wynn Thomas for pointing this out to me.
9
Village Dialect
, (Carmarthen: Druid Press, 1944), p. 12. In July 1944 Dylan Thomas wrote ‘Lynette,
who cannot read Welsh, is revising the standard nineteenth -century book on Welsh prosody, and also annotating a work on the hedgerows of Carmarthenshire.
I hope she becomes famous & that they will name an insect after her’ (
Collected Letters
, p. 518).
10 Unpublished typescript, untitled and dated 2 September 1943.
11 Nigel Wheale, ‘Lynette Roberts: Legend and Form in the 1940s’, p. 5.
12
Village Dialect
, p. 24.
13 The same raid was witnessed by the artist Arthur Giardelli who comments on the mismatch
between Roberts’s poem (which he describes as having the feel of a Paul Nash painting)
and the reality it both works on and climbs free of: ‘It isn’t like my experience
at all […] exceedingly dramatic but to me about complete devastation: fires still
burning, smoke, the dash of water out of a pipe hour after hour. […] It is a superb
poem, but she’s using her intellect, her imagination and vision’ (Arthur Giardelli,
Paintings Constructions Relief Sculptures: Conversations with Derek Shiel
(Bridgend: Seren, n.d.), pp. 68–9.
14 Keith Douglas, ‘How to Kill’,
The Complete Poems
(London: Faber and Faber, 2000), p. 119.
15 ‘Frostwork and the Mud Vision’
The Cambridge Quarterly
(2002, 31/1), p. 98, a review of Keith Tuma’s
Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
16 ‘Simplicity of the Welsh Village’,
The Field
, 7 July 1945, p. 8.
17 Ibid., p. 9.
18 Nigel Wheale, ‘Beyond the Trauma Stratus’, p. 99.
19 ‘The Welsh Dragon,
Times Literary Supplement
, 29 August 1952, p. xxxi.
20
Poetry Wales
Lynette Roberts special issue, p. 82.
21 Ibid., p. 84
22 The Eliot-Roberts correspondence dates from summer 1942 to December 1953, and is
unpublished.
23 Anthony Conran,
Frontiers in Anglo-Welsh Poetry
, p. 166.
Poem from Llanybri
If you come my way that is
…
Between now and then, I will offer you
A fist full of rock cress fresh
Lewis’, (
Poetry Wales
1983, 19/2); ‘The Poetry of the Second World War’, in
British Poetry 1900–50
, ed. Gary Day and Brian Docherty (London: Macmillan, 1995). Nigel Wheale, ‘Lynette
Roberts: Legend and Form in the 1940s’,
Critical Quarterly
(1994, 36/3); ‘“Beyond the Trauma Stratus”: Lynette Roberts’
Gods with Stainless Ears
and the Post-War Cultural Landscape’,
Welsh Writing in English
, vol. 3 (1997). Among poets, her work has been of interest principally to those of
an ‘ experimental ’ or ‘avant-garde’ temper. For a profound and updated engagement with Roberts’s themes
and manner, see John Wilkinson’s poem ‘Sarn Helen’, subtitled ‘Homage to Lynette Roberts and for Friends in Swansea’.
2 Lewis’s poem for Roberts was ‘Peace’ in
Raiders’ Dawn
(1941), an unsettling and oblique poem with a final note of optimism. She told him
‘My poem is real i.e. true of the everyday things I do. Yours is mythical’, and the
poetic exchange is all the more poignant for the fact that three years later Lewis
would be dead. Alun Lewis’s letters to Roberts and Keidrych Rhys appear in
Wales
(February/March, 1948, VIII/28). For an account of the friendship between Lynette
Roberts and Alun Lewis, see John Pikoulis’s essay in the
Poetry Wales
special issue on Lynette Roberts. In the same issue Tony Conran’s essay ‘Lynette
Roberts: The Lyric Pieces’ discusses Roberts’s connections with the Welsh-language
poetic tradition.
3
The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas
, ed. Paul Ferris (London: Dent, 1985), p. 418.
4 Ibid.
5 Quoted in
Poetry Wales
, Lynette Roberts special issue, p. 14.
6 Keidrych Rhys,
The Van Pool and Other Poems
(London: Routledge, 1942), p. 9.
7
Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas
, p. 419.
8 I am grateful to Wynn Thomas for pointing this out to me.
9
Village Dialect
, (Carmarthen: Druid Press, 1944), p. 12. In July 1944 Dylan Thomas wrote ‘Lynette,
who cannot read Welsh, is revising the standard nineteenth -century book on Welsh prosody, and also annotating a work on the hedgerows of Carmarthenshire.
I hope she becomes famous & that they will name an insect after her’ (
Collected Letters
, p. 518).
10 Unpublished typescript, untitled and dated 2 September 1943.
11 Nigel Wheale, ‘Lynette Roberts: Legend and Form in the 1940s’, p. 5.
12
Village Dialect
, p. 24.
13 The same raid was witnessed by the artist Arthur Giardelli who comments on the mismatch
between Roberts’s poem (which he describes as having the feel of a Paul Nash painting)
and the reality it both works on and climbs free of: ‘It isn’t like my experience
at all […] exceedingly dramatic but to me about complete devastation: fires still
burning, smoke, the dash of water out of a pipe hour after hour. […] It is a superb
poem, but she’s using her intellect, her imagination and vision’ (Arthur Giardelli,
Paintings Constructions Relief Sculptures: Conversations with Derek Shiel
(Bridgend: Seren, n.d.), pp. 68–9.
14 Keith Douglas, ‘How to Kill’,
The Complete Poems
(London: Faber and Faber, 2000), p. 119.
15 ‘Frostwork and the Mud Vision’
The Cambridge Quarterly
(2002, 31/1), p. 98, a review of Keith Tuma’s
Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
16 ‘Simplicity of the Welsh Village’,
The Field
, 7 July 1945, p. 8.
17 Ibid., p. 9.
18 Nigel Wheale, ‘Beyond the Trauma Stratus’, p. 99.
19 ‘The Welsh Dragon,
Times Literary Supplement
, 29 August 1952, p. xxxi.
20
Poetry Wales
Lynette Roberts special issue, p. 82.
21 Ibid., p. 84
22 The Eliot-Roberts correspondence dates from summer 1942 to December 1953, and is
unpublished.
23 Anthony Conran,
Frontiers in Anglo-Welsh Poetry
, p. 166.
Poem from Llanybri
If you come my way that is
…
Between now and then, I will offer you
A fist full of rock cress fresh
Similar Books
