R. S. Thomas Quotes

Quotes about:

• Poetry is that / which arrives at the intellect / by way of the heart.

  R. S. Thomas

  Heart, Way, Intellect

  59 Copy quote

• The silence holds with its gloved hand the wild hawk of the mind.

  R. S. Thomas

  Hands, Silence, Mind

  33 Copy quote

• To live in Wales is to be conscious at dusk of the spilled blood that went into the making of the wild sky

  R. S. Thomas

  Blood, Sky, Conscious

  R.S. Thomas (2012). “Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas”, p.45, Hachette UK

  30 Copy quote

• The old men ask for more time; the young waste it. And the philosopher simply smiles, knowing there is none there.

  R. S. Thomas

  Men, Knowing, Waste

  24 Copy quote

• The meaning is in the waiting.

  R. S. Thomas

  Waiting

  R.S. Thomas (2012). “R. S. Thomas: Everyman Poetry: Everyman's Poetry”, p.74, Hachette UK

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• I have seen the sun break through
  to illuminate a small field
  for a while, and gone my way
  and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
  of great price, the one field that had
  treasure in it. I realize now
  that I must give all that I have
  to possess it. Life is not hurrying
  on to a receeding future, nor hankering after
  an imagined past. It is the turning
  aside like Moses to the miracle
  of the lit bush, to a brightness
  that seemed as transitory as your youth
  once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

  R. S. Thomas

  Past, Break Through, Giving

  R.S. Thomas (2012). “R. S. Thomas: Everyman Poetry: Everyman's Poetry”, p.96, Hachette UK

  25 Copy quote

• Ah, what balance is needed at
  the edges of such an abyss.
  I am left alone on the surface
  of a turning planet. What
  to do but, like Michelangelo's
  Adam, put my hand
  out into unknown space,
  hoping for the reciprocating touch?

  R. S. Thomas

  Hands, Space, Balance

  "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("Threshold", p. 110), 1981.

  21 Copy quote

• You have to imagine
  a waiting that is not impatient
  because it is timeless.

  R. S. Thomas

  Waiting, Imagine, Impatient

  "The Echoes Return Slow". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1988.

  24 Copy quote

• A recurring ideal, I find, is that of simplicity. At times there comes the desire to write with great precision and clarity, words so simple and moving that they bring tears to the eyes.

  R. S. Thomas

  Moving, Writing, Eye

  18 Copy quote

• somewhere within sight of the tree of poetry that is eternity wearing the green leaves of time .

  R. S. Thomas

  Sight, Tree, Green

  R.S. Thomas (2012). “Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas”, p.423, Hachette UK

  21 Copy quote

• The furies are at home in the mirror; it is their address. Even the clearest water, if deep enough can drown. Never think to surprise them. Your face approaching ever so friendly is the white flag they ignore. There is no truce with the furies. A mirror's temperature is always zero. It is ice in the veins. It's camera is an x-ray. It is a chalice held out to you in silent communion, where gaspingly you partake of a shifting identity never your own.

  R. S. Thomas

  Zero, Fear, Home

  10 Copy quote

• I am left alone on the surface
  of a turning planet.

  R. S. Thomas

  Surface, Planets

  "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("Threshold", p. 110), 1981.

  19 Copy quote

• Imaginative truth is the most immediate way of presenting ultimate reality to a human being... ultimate reality is what we call God.

  R. S. Thomas

  Reality, Way, Truth Is

  "R. S. Thomas : Priest and Poet". BBC TV, April 2, 1972.

  11 Copy quote

• Man is a dream about a shadow. But when some splendour falls upon him from God, a glory comes to him and his life is sweet.

  R. S. Thomas

  Dream, Sweet, Fall

  "Neb". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1985.

  12 Copy quote

• Sunlight 's a thing that needs a window Before it enter a dark room. Windows don't happen." So two old poets, Hunched at their beer in the low haze Of an inn parlour, while the talk ran Noisily by them, glib with prose.

  R. S. Thomas

  Beer, Dark, Two

  R. S. Thomas, “Poetry For Supper”

  15 Copy quote

• I have known exile and a wild passion Of longing changing to a cold ache. King, beggar and fool , I have been all by turns, Knowing the body's sweetness, the mind 's treason ; Taliesin still, I show you a new world , risen, Stubborn with beauty , out of the heart 's need .

  R. S. Thomas

  Kings, Passion, Heart

  "Song at the Year's Turning : Poems, 1942-1954" by R. S. Thomas". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1955.

  17 Copy quote

• I had looked forward
  to old age as a time
  of quietness, a time to draw
  my horizons about me,
  to watch memories ripening
  in the sunlight of a walled garden.
  But there is the void
  over my head and the distance
  within that the tireless signals
  come from. And astronaut
  on impossible journeys
  to the far side of the self
  I return with messages
  I cannot decipher.

  R. S. Thomas

  Memories, Distance, Journey

  "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("The New Mariner", p. 99), 1981.

  10 Copy quote

• Is there a place here for the spirit ? Is there time on this brief platform for anything other than mind 's failure to explain itself?

  R. S. Thomas

  Mind, Spirit, Platforms

  R.S. Thomas (2012). “Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas”, p.355, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

• Art is recuperation
  from time. I lie back
  convalescing upon the prospect
  of a harvest already at hand.

  R. S. Thomas

  Art, Lying, Hands

  "Between Here and Now" by R. S. Thomas, ("Pissaro: Kitchen Garden, Trees in Bloom", p. 41), 1981.

  7 Copy quote

• I have been all men known to history,
  Wondering at the world and at time passing;
  I have seen evil, and the light blessing
  Innocent love under a spring sky.

  R. S. Thomas

  Spring, Blessing, Men

  "Song at the Year's Turning : Poems, 1942-1954". Book by R. S. Thomas, 1955.

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• We live in our own world , A world that is too small For you to stoop and enter Even on hands and knees, The adult subterfuge.

  R. S. Thomas

  Hands, Adults, World

  R.S. Thomas (2012). “Collected Poems: 1945-1990 R.S.Thomas: Collected Poems : R S Thomas”, p.57, Hachette UK

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• Verse should be as natural As the small tuber that feeds on muck And grows slowly from obtuse soil To the white flower of immortal beauty

  R. S. Thomas

  Flower, White, Soil

  R. S. Thomas, “Poetry For Supper”

  15 Copy quote

• Even God had a Welsh name : He spoke to him in the old language; He was to have a peculiar care For the Welsh people. History showed us He was too big to be nailed to the wall Of a stone chapel, yet still we crammed him Between the boards of a black book .

  R. S. Thomas

  Wall, Book, Names

  R. S. Thomas, “A Welsh Testament”

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• The nearest we approach God ...is as creative beings. The poet, by echoing the primary imagination, recreates. Through his work he forces those who read him to do the same, thus bringing them... nearer to the actual being of God as displayed in action.

  R. S. Thomas

  Imagination, Creative, Action

  "The Penguin Book of Religious Verse" by R. S. Thomas, (p. 8), 1963.

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• I'm obviously not orthodox, I don't know how many real poets have ever been orthodox.

  R. S. Thomas

  Real, Poet, Orthodox

  "R. S. Thomas in conversation with Molly Price-Owen". The David Jones Journal, 2001.

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