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Saunders Lewis, “Prayer at the End” (Gweddi’ ’r Terfyn): A Translation and a Commentary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

John Heywood Thomas Open the ORCID record for John Heywood Thomas [Opens in a new window]
John Heywood Thomas*
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Bonvilston, Vale of Glamorgan, CF5 6TY, UK
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johnheywoodthomas@gmail.com
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Abstract

Having spent my professional career in England I am more familiar with English poetry than with Welsh and so one of my great pleasures now is reading Welsh poetry. A book I have read and re-read more than once is The Poems of Saunders Lewis. There the poem that has gripped me and still does is this great poem. Apparently, it received much attention when it was published - three articles by D. Z. Phillips with a reply and a note by the poet commenting on the background influences. Without returning to that, I want to note the importance of the influence. Simple though the language may be, the poem is full of philosophical and theological ideas together with a keen awareness of Biblical study.

Keywords

SaundersLewispoetryHeideggerdeathmystery
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 103 , Issue 1103 , January 2022 , pp. 29 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 An article originally published in Welsh, Y Traethodydd, October 2020.

2 Articles in the Welsh journal, Y Tryst, May and June 1974.

3 Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time, trans, Macquarrie, John & Robinson, Edward, (SCM, London, 1962), ¶ 47Google Scholar, The Possibility of Experiencing the Death of Others, and the Possibility of Getting a Whole Dasein into our Grasp, 281-285.

4 Being and Time, 284.

5 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, trans. Ogden, C. K. (Kegan Paul, London, 1922)Google Scholar, 6.4311.

6 Kierkegaard, Søren, Journals and Papers, ed. H. E and Hong, E. U. (Indiana University Press, 1967), 726Google Scholar.

7 Ibid.

8 Being and Time, 282.

9 Ibid.

10 Eliot, T. S., ‘The Metaphysical Poets’, in Selected Essays, (Faber & Faber, London, 1934), 287Google Scholar.

11 Sartre, Jean Paul, L’être et le néant, (Gallimard, 1966), 592Google Scholar.

12 Thomas, R. S, Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art, (Bloodaxe Books, Hexham, 2016), 53Google Scholar. Thomas, in this poem, is reflecting on the painting, Gorse by a Sea Wall, by Graham Sutherland.

13 Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology, vol. 3, (James Nisbett, Welwyn, 1964), 437Google Scholar.

14 Tractatus, 6.431 (Ogden's translation).

15 See my discussion, ‘Kierkegaard on Prayer’, New Blackfriars, vol. 98 No. 1077 (September 2017), 501-509CrossRefGoogle Scholar.