Seminar 5

A Welsh Landscape

1.Title: literal. It literally tells about a Welsh landscape.

2. Theme/Mood

Theme: the poem is about the author’s views about Wales and Welsh culture. Moreover, the
poem depicts the people of Wales, based on this landscape portrait.

Mood: the lyrical voice wishes to tell the history of Wales and leave a lasting effect on the
reader, as the poem focuses on some negative aspects, it makes me feel pessimistic, sad or even
disappointed. The lyrical voice emphasizes the loss of life during battles and uses a tone of
pessimism, uneasiness, and pain.

Furthermore, there is a clear attempt to capture the reader’s attention with: ‘You cannot live in
the present’. By using second person, Thomas forces the idea and consideration onto the reader
and they immdeadiately think about what he has written. It is questionable for the reader why
they ‘cannot live in the present’ and aids them to conclude that the past events are unforgettable.

3. Thematic structure

The whole poem is dedicated to show the reader what does it mean to be a Welsh and to live in
Wales.

The poem starts by mentioning a characteristic of living in Wales. To live in Wales means to be
aware of the “spilled blood”. This means that the people of Wales know that they have lost many
men at war. Thus, “spilled blood” serves as a metaphor to talk about Welsh people and their
history. This “spilled blood”, as part of their history, is everywhere around them.

In the second part the author says that to to “live in Wales” also means to be part of the rural
Welsh tradition: “Above the noisy tractor/And hum of the machine/Of strife in the strung
woods”. The lyrical voice portrays rural imagery in order to accentuate the description of the
daily life in Wales and the agricultural setting. Generally, the whole poem describes and criticize
life in Wales in different ways.

In the third part the author says that there is no future in this country, only the past, “ you cannot
live in the present,at least not in Wales”, Thomas criticize the language, which seems to be
strange even for citizens, and he says that people in Wales are “impotent, sick with inbreeding”.

The poem ‘Welsh Landscape’ was written by R S Thomas to emphasise his love and passion for
Wales and its history.

The poem starts off with an adjective as Thomas says ‘To live in Wales is to be conscious’
which gives the effect that to live in Wales is emphasise the fact that you need to be conscious
about Welsh history and think more about how Wales came about and the fact that the Welsh
had to fight in order to keep Wales. In the second line ‘At dusk of the spilled blood’ Thomas
emphasises all of the battles that the Welsh have had by using imagery as the colour of dusk is
like a blood red colour and Thomas could also be trying to show the fact that the Welsh battles
would have ended at dusk. ‘That went into the making of the wild sky’ shows the fact that the
Welsh were wild people and the fact that the Welsh had frequent wars. For the next line ‘Dyeing
the immaculate rivers’ shows the fact that the rivers were dyed with the colour red as the Welsh
had many battles and it also shows the fact that a lot of people were killed and shows the fact
that because the Welsh loved their land so much they washed away the blood from all of the
battles and were prepared to let go as they would be washing away the badness of the battles.

In the next stanza Thomas says ‘In all their courses’ shows all of the times that the Welsh tried
to invade, following this line Thomas expresses the fact that people should be aware and is a
reminder of the fact that the Welsh won the English as he says ‘It is to be aware’. ‘Above the
noisy tractor’ is a metaphor as Thomas tries to express the fact that the Welsh were higher than
the English and were in a sense better than them.

‘And hum of the machine’ expresses the battle cries from both the Welsh and English, this also
shows how hard working the Welsh were and are. In the following line Thomas tries to explain
that the English would have been disorientated as they had no place in Wales and also that they
were getting lost in the woods as he says ‘Of strife in the strung woods’. ‘Vibrant with sped
arrows’ tells us that the Welsh were full of energy and life as they tried to defeat the English
during the battles.

The following stanza explains that without the Welsh people from the past winning the battles
against the English Wales wouldn’t be around today as Thomas says ‘You cannot live in the
present, At least not in Wales’ which gives an insight that the history of Wales made Wales what
it is today and that people wouldn’t be living in Wales had it not have been for the Welsh people
of the past, Thomas also explains that the history of Wales has and always will live on. After this
Thomas also explains that the Welsh language has lived on for a long time and will still live on
for a long time as he says ‘There is the language for instance, the soft consonants strange to the
ear’.

Throughout the last stanza Thomas concludes with the fact that there is no present in Wales
because the history of Wales has lived on for such a long time and the fact that he is worried that
the history of Wales will be forgotten as the years pass, he also tries to explain that if people
don’t remember the history of Wales that in the future the history of Wales will not live on and
will have been forgotten altogether.

4.Symbols / allusions

Metaphor “spilled blood”- this means that the people of Wales know that they have lost many
men at war. Thus, “spilled blood” serves as a metaphor to talk about Welsh people and their
history. This “spilled blood”, as part of their history, is everywhere around them: “That went into
the making of the wild sky,/Dyeing the immaculate rivers/In all their courses”.

Noisy tractor, hum of the machine are used as symbols of the agricultural setting in Wales.

The final lines “And an impotent people,/Sick with inbreeding,/Worrying the carcase of an old
song” shows that people instead of worrying about the present or future, the people of Wales are
stuck in a painful past full of vestiges. The lyrical voice has a pessimistic tone in these last lines
as the people of Wales are described and it seems as there isn’t hope for their country if they
continue to be attached to their past in a painful way.
Thomas presents a feeling of pride for the originality of aspects in Wales when he highlights:
‘the language for instance’. Although now the language is unfortunately lost, the writer wants to
emphasise the unusualness. Thomas almost enjoys the fact that the language may seem odd to an
English man or woman because it makes his country different.

Additionally, RS Thomas uses listing across lines in stanza four to encourage his ideas. An
extract of this would be: ‘and no future: there is only the past’. Thomas feels a responsibilty to
force younger generations to remember traditional Wales. Perhaps in the past, RS Thomas was
happier during simpler time when he had his own language and culture and in this way he
possibly could wish to return to previous times.

To conclude, RS Thomas uses imagery of the Welsh landscape to further encourage Welsh
bravery and express all that is lost.

5. Lyrical hero

A lyrical hero is disspaointed by his country, he criticizes the way of living, wars, language and
other things. He is worried about the future of the country, actually he says that there is no future
at all in his country, because people think only about the past, about “the old song”, they can’t
even live in present. The lyrical hero feels enthusiastic because he wants to make people start
thinking about the future of their country, but he feels sad and disappointed because now people
are impotent, sick with inbreeding.

6. Rhythm/rhyme

"Welsh Landscape" has no rhythmic syllable pattern, which implies Wales isn't structured. I tend
to think it is a verlibre, as it has no rhyme. There isn't a rhyme pattern either.

Iambus?

depicts the people of Wales, based on this landscape portrait.  Moreover, the poem depicts the people of
Wales, based on this landscape portrait. Moreover, the poem depicts the people of Wales, based on this
landscape portrait.