Thomas, R(onald) S(tuart)

Welsh poet. His verse contrasts traditional Welsh values with encroaching ‘English’ sterility. His poems, including The Stones of the Field (1946), Song at the Year's Turning (1955), and Laboratories of the Spirit (1975), excel at the portrayal of the wild beauty of the Welsh landscape and religious. His Collected Poems appeared in 1993.

Thomas was born in Cardiff, but, as his father was in the merchant Navy, the family moved often. He read Classics at the University College of North Wales and then entered theological training at St. Michael's, Cardiff. When he became rector of Manafon, Montgomeryshire, he began to write poetry seriously.