362:"The author of this lyrical sequence is moved by a fine indignation born of experience. His poem, therefore, is the outcry of a community as well as that of an individual. It expresses the hopes, betrayal, and suffering of the people of South Wales. It has the simplicity of folksong, of a modern folksong rich with the idiom and image of the contemporary scene and outlook on life. These songs ring true and their appeal is more than a literary one. The author takes his place with Welsh poets such as W. H. Davies and Huw Menai as one authorised by his people to sing for them, and to show the world in music what they have suffered and are still suffering in actuality"
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In a diary entry Davies wrote: "I am a socialist. That is why I want as much beauty as possible in our everyday lives, and so I am an enemy of pseudo-poetry and pseudo-art of all kinds. Too many 'poets of the Left', as they call themselves, are badly in need of instruction as to the difference
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Davies died from abdominal cancer, aged 48, at his mother's house at 7, Victoria Road, Rhymney on Easter Monday, 6 April 1953. He was buried in
Rhymney Public Cemetery. There are memorial plaques to Davies at Victoria Road and at the town library.
333:. Later, more of his unpublished poems and most of his prose – an unfinished novel, essays, lecture notes and some of his letters – were found. Some of this later material appeared posthumously in
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There is a modern memorial sculpture for Davies in
Rhymney, with an inscription reading "When April came to Rhymney with shower and sun and shower" – the opening line of his poem "Rhymney".
185:
operator) Evan Davies and his wife
Elizabeth Ann. He learned English at school. After leaving school at the age of fourteen, for the next seven years Davies worked underground as a
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201:, the pit closed and he became unemployed. He spent the next four years following what he called "the long and lonely self-tuition game", having been introduced to the work of
325:
After his death over two hundred of his manuscript poems and a short verse-play, together with the typescripts of his comprehensive wartime diaries, were deposited at the
290:, was published shortly before his death. Around this time Dylan Thomas wrote Davies a surprisingly touching letter. Thomas had read "Bells of Rhymney" as part of a
283:. Eliot thought that Davies' poems had a claim to permanence, describing them as "the best poetic document I know about a particular epoch in a particular place".
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The "Bells of
Rhymney" verses, perhaps Davies' most widely known work, appear as Part XV of the book. The stanzas follow the pattern of the well known
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radio broadcast, but told Davies that he did not feel the poem was particularly representative of Davies' work, as it was "not angry enough".
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on
Imagination until they show signs of understanding him. Then the air will be clear again, and the land be, if not full of, fit for song."
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In
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and qualified as a teacher in 1932. He started teaching in that year at various schools in London, including
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458:. The verses it contained were inspired partly by such mining disasters as that at
133:(meaning literally "Wasteland of Wales"), which were later adapted into a popular
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He was the only poet to cover significant events of the early 20th century in the
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by many others since. More recently some of the other stanzas from Davies'
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as the song "When We Walked to
Merthyr Tydfil in the Moonlight Long Ago".
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and became acquainted with a group of Welsh litterateurs who frequented
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Davies' first published volume was the 1938 extended poetical work
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Pens which belonged to the poet Idris Davies at education.gtj.org
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between poetry and propaganda ... These people should read
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Black Skin, Blue Books: African
Americans and Wales, 1845-1945
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Memorial plaque (in
English and Welsh), Victoria Road, Rhymney
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The cost of strangeness: Essays on the
English poets of Wales
536:, in a Parliamentary debate concerning health-care in Wales.
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and their combined effects on the South Wales valleys.
489:". In the late 1950s the verses were adapted into a
275:. The poems for his second anthology, published by
823:"Track leading to Blaen-Rhymney (C) Robin Drayton"
801:. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 60.
751:. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 60.
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520:In February 2010 Davies' work was mentioned, by
271:In 1947 he returned to teach at a school in the
513:have also been set to music by Welsh performer
649:Davies, Idris (1994). Johnston, Dafydd (ed.).
627:(Second ed.). Llandysul: Gomerian Press.
381:provides a useful summary of Davies' outlook.
621:Davies, Idris (1980). Jenkins, Islwyn (ed.).
1050:BBC Wales feature on "The Bells of Rhymney"
962:. University of Wales Press. p. 105.
121:, and from a perspective literally at the
31:
956:Williams, Daniel G. (15 September 2012).
885:A Carol for the Coalfield and other poems
864:"Plaque, Victoria Road (C) Robin Drayton"
848:. Poetspriestsandpubs.org. Archived from
670:A carol for the coalfield and other poems
76:Rhymney, near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales
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776:. Llandysul: Gomer Press. p. 108.
125:. He is now best known for the verses "
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653:. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
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476:Great Depression in the United Kingdom
343:Argo Record No. ZPL.1181: Idris Davies
220:, during which he became friends with
94:(6 January 1905 – 6 April 1953) was a
723:"Davies, Idris (1905–1953) Biography"
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984:"25 Feb 2010: Column 513 in Hansard"
935:"Fresh memorial to miner-poet Idris"
933:Devine, Darren (22 September 2006).
891:, Corgi Series (ed. Meic Stephens);
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165:Davies was born at 16 Field Street,
846:"Welcome to Rhymney: Stage 2 of 13"
470:in 1927, and by the failure of the
335:The Collected Poems of Idris Davies
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651:The complete poems of Idris Davies
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672:. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch.
595:The Angry Summer: A Poem of 1926
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427:And watch from doors and bridges
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624:Collected poems of Idris Davies
436:The things by boyhood cherished
377:The editor's frontispiece from
193:and later at the Maerdy Pit in
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501:standard. The song, entitled "
434:Where man meets man with pain,
432:Though blighted be the valleys
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1043:Dictionary of Welsh Biography
1004:Rogers, Jude (17 June 2017).
699:
438:Stand firm, and shall remain.
429:The hills and skies of Gwent.
414:The slopes of slag and cinder
189:in the nearby McLaren Pit at
407:The pit-wheels turn no more,
306:Memorial to Idris Davies in
7:
1123:Deaths from cancer in Wales
797:Thomas, Mair Elvet (1988).
747:Thomas, Mair Elvet (1988).
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557:set to music and re-titled
551:Public Service Broadcasting
420:The hope of youth is slain.
405:In the places of my boyhood
10:
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909:"Memorial to Idris Davies"
972:– via Google Books.
799:The Welsh spirit of Gwent
749:The Welsh spirit of Gwent
616:Published posthumously:
604:Tonypandy and other poems
577:In Davies' own lifetime:
327:National Library of Wales
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1113:20th-century Welsh poets
772:Conran, Anthony (1982).
553:, includes a version of
423:And yet I love to wander
416:Are sulking on the rain,
411:The midnight as of yore.
409:Nor any furnace lightens
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279:in 1945, were chosen by
214:University of Nottingham
418:And in derelict valleys
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1118:Proletarian literature
727:Welsh Biography Online
668:Davies, Idris (2002).
612:(1953) Faber and Faber
606:(1945) Faber and Faber
563:Manic Street Preachers
472:1926 UK General Strike
442:
425:The early ways I went,
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228:, a Welsh bookshop in
199:General Strike of 1926
181:chief winderman (mine
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371:, frontispiece, 1938
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268:and Sheila Macleod).
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119:South Wales Coalfield
1036:The Bells of Rhymney
567:James Dean Bradfield
555:Gwalia Deserta XXXVI
503:The Bells of Rhymney
401:Gwalia Deserta XXXVI
210:Loughborough College
1103:People from Rhymney
889:Gwasg Carreg Gwalch
208:He took courses at
205:by a fellow miner.
115:South Wales Valleys
1034:The poem and song
694:Anglo-Welsh poetry
586:Wasteland of Wales
545:, by London-based
487:Oranges and Lemons
319:
286:His final volume,
234:Charing Cross Road
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1093:Anglo-Welsh poets
866:. geograph.org.uk
852:on 25 April 2012.
825:. geograph.org.uk
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559:Turn No More
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1088:1953 deaths
1083:1905 births
584:(literally
547:alternative
530:Plaid Cymru
495:Pete Seeger
331:Aberystwyth
281:T. S. Eliot
257:Left Review
230:Cecil Court
218:East London
108:South Wales
1077:Categories
783:0850888654
732:1 December
700:References
679:0863817025
660:0708312721
195:Pontlottyn
191:Abertysswg
82:Occupation
46:1905-01-06
16:Welsh poet
588:) (1938)
565:' singer
515:Max Boyce
499:folk rock
491:folk song
468:Ebbw Vale
135:folk song
1015:6 August
688:See also
345:(1972).
337:(1972);
212:and the
179:colliery
123:coalface
117:and the
1057:at the
887:(2002)
597:(1943)
507:covered
308:Rhymney
262:Comment
203:Shelley
167:Rhymney
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242:, the
232:, off
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549:band
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355:Views
316:Wales
187:miner
175:Welsh
96:Welsh
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991:2014
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