THE COLLECTED POEMS OF GLYN JONES

Edited by Meic Stephens

`This is a scholarly volume, edited by one who has contributed to a critical assessment of Glyn Jones as a major writer. It has an excellent introduction and copious notes . . . ' (Western Mail)

One of the most important writers of twentieth-century Wales, and a master of the short-story form, Glyn Jones regarded himself as primarily a poet. During a lifetime's devotion to his craft, he wrote poems of exquisite subtlety and great power about the places and people which meant most to him. Many are set in Merthyr Tydfil, where he was born and brought up, in Cardiff, where he was for many years a teacher, and in rural Carmarthenshire, where his father's people had their roots.

'The book has a thoughtful introduction by Mercer Simpson, which not only makes perceptive judgements on the poetry but also puts the writer and his work into the context of his time.' (Planet)

This volume gathers all Glyn Jones's previously published poems, together with a number which are published here for the first time. They include the complete text of `Seven Keys to Shaderdom', a long, complex poem on which he worked during his last years, and in which he found some remarkable, sometimes disturbing things to say about the lot of the artist (whether writer or painter) in Wales today.

The editor, Meic Stephens, has provided notes on the provenance of the poems and thrown light on many of the allusions and uncommon words of which the poet was so fond. His chronology of the writer's life and work, and valuable introduction by Mercer Simpson, are designed to help the student, teacher and general reader to a fuller appreciation of these fine poems.

Meic Stephens founded Poetry Wales in 1965 and edited the magazine for eight years. From 1967 to 1990 he was the Welsh Arts Council's Literature Director. Among the many books he has compiled are A Dictionary of Literary Quotations (1990), The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to Great Britain and Ireland (1992) and A Most Peculiar People: Quotations about Wales and the Welsh (UWP, 1992). He has also edited the collected poems of Harri Webb (1995) and the short stories of Rhys Davies (1996), and is the co-editor for the University of Wales Press of the Writers of Wales series.