Early Twentieth Century
Welsh writing in English is generally seen as beginning in the twentieth century, following the decline of the Welsh language. A memorable twentieth-century poet who initially wrote in Welsh was Idris Davies (1905–53). But "rebellion against chapel religion", along with the "inspirational influence of English" poets, led him to write in English (Gwalia Deserta (1938); The Angry Summer (1943)).
A major Welsh poet is Swansea's Dylan Thomas (1914–53) whose first collection, 18 Poems, was published in 1934. His most celebrated work, including Under Milk Wood (first broadcast in 1954), was published after the Second World War. While David Jones (1895–1974) was born in a London suburb, his father was from North Wales. Jones' epic poem In Parenthesis, which deals with his experience of World War I, was published in 1937, though he too belongs more to the post-war era, as does another Swansea poet Vernon Watkins (1906–67).
Read more about this topic: Anglo-Welsh Poetry
Famous quotes containing the words twentieth century, early twentieth, early, twentieth and/or century:
“Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
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“For with this desire of physical beauty mingled itself early the fear of death—the fear of death intensified by the desire of beauty.”
—Walter Pater 1839–1894, British writer, educator. originally published in Macmillan’s Magazine (Aug. 1878)
“The descendants of Holy Roman Empire monarchies became feeble-minded in the twentieth century, and after World War I had been done in by the democracies; some were kept on to entertain the tourists, like the one they have in England.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“The fly sat upon the axel-tree of the chariot-wheel and said, What a dust do I raise!”
—Aesop (6th century B.C.)