Collected Later Poems, 1988-2000

Synopsis

R.S. Thomas (1913-2000) is one of the major poets of our time, as well as one of the finest religious poets in the English language and Wales's greatest poet. This substantial gathering of his late poems shows us the final flowering of a truly great poet still writing at the height of his powers right through his 70s and 80s. It begins with his autobiographical sequence The Echoes Return Slow, which has been unavailable for many years, and goes up to Residues, written immediately before his death at the age of 87. These powerful poems - about time and history, the self, love, the machine, the Cross and prayer - cover all of his major areas of questioning. This is R.S. Thomas in a winter light, his fury concentrated on the inhumanity of man and modern technology, his gaze absorbed by the God he felt in Nature, but finding nourishment in 'waste places'. At the same time he writes with resigned feeling and immense insight, as well as grim humour and playful irony, of isolation, ageing, marriage and 'love's shining greenhouses'. For Thomas, 'Poetry is that / which arrives at the intellect / by way of the heart.' Collected Later Poems 1988-2000 is the sequel to R.S. Thomas's Collected Poems 1945-1990 (Dent, 1993; Phoenix Press, 1995), which only covers his collections up to Experimenting with an Amen (1986). It reprints in full the contents of R.S. Thomas's last five collections, The Echoes Return Slow (Macmillan, 1988: unavailable for many years), and Bloodaxe's Counterpoint (1990), Mass for Hard Times (1992), No Truce with the Furies (1995) and the posthumously published Residues (2002). It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. It was followed in 2013 by Uncollected Poems and in 2016 by Too Brave to Dream.

Summary

Chapter 1: The Age of Anxiety (1988-1992)

* Themes: Aging, mortality, loss, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world.
* Key poems:
* "The Dream Song": Explores the fleeting nature of time and memory, using the metaphor of a dream that is constantly fading.
* "Elegy for a Deceased Dolphin": Mourns the loss of a beloved creature and reflects on the fragility of life.
* "The Age of Anxiety": Questions the social and political upheavals of the late 20th century.

Chapter 2: The Search for the Self (1993-1996)

* Themes: Identity, self-discovery, and the relationship between the individual and society.
* Key poems:
* "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror": A series of fragmented and distorted reflections on the speaker's own identity.
* "The Garden": Explores the complex and evolving nature of the human psyche.
* "What the Body Told": Examines the physical and emotional experiences that shape our understanding of ourselves.

Chapter 3: The World Unseen (1997-1999)

* Themes: The supernatural, the unknown, and the limits of human perception.
* Key poems:
* "The Ghost": A haunting and evocative depiction of a departed spirit that lingers in the present.
* "The Unseen": Explores the hidden forces and mysteries that lurk beneath the surface of reality.
* "The Dream of Achilles": Uses the myth of Achilles to ponder the boundaries between life and death.

Chapter 4: The Closing Circle (2000)

* Themes: Mortality, legacy, and the finality of death.
* Key poems:
* "The Last Voyage": A poignant meditation on the journey towards the unknown that awaits us all.
* "The End": Offers a stark and unsentimental view of the final act of human existence.
* "The Collected Last Poems": A collection of shorter works that explore themes of loss, longing, and the search for meaning in the face of death.

Real Example:

Chapter 1: The Age of Anxiety

"The Dream Song"

Like a lost word that hovers on the tongue,
And then is gone, the dream slips through my grip,
Leaving only a residue of longing,
A sense of something precious that has slipped away.

The images, once so vivid and compelling,
Fade like watercolors in the rain,
Dissolving into a blur of forgotten shapes,
Whispering echoes of a forgotten refrain.

Time, the relentless river, sweeps me forward,
And the dream, like a frail boat on its crest,
Is tossed and turned by the relentless currents,
Until it disappears into the mist.