The Collected Poems of Roland Mathias

Roland Mathias is one of the most important writers to emerge in Wales since the Second World War. He was one of the founders of Dock Leaves in 1949 and became an outstanding editor of the magazine under its revised title, The Anglo-Welsh Review. He is a distinguished short-story writer, literary critic and, above all, a poet. His poetry is profoundly influenced by the personal challenge of Christian morality and focuses on the intertwined concerns of family, mutability, history and landscape. It is characterized by verbal inventiveness, skilful use of metre and honesty of observation. The Collected Poems of Roland Mathias contains his entire poetic output, from Days Enduring (1942) to A Field at Vallorcines (1996), as well as a number of previously unpublished pieces. The poems are fully annotated and, in addition to a biographical outline and bibliography, the editor's introduction includes an extended discussion of Mathias's poetic development and a review of critical opinions of his poetry. This is the definitive edition of the poetic work of one of the major figures of twentieth-century Welsh writing in English.