R(ONALD) S(TUART) THOMAS
(b. March 29, 1913, Cardiff, Glamorgan [now South Glamorgan], Wales), Welsh clergyman and poet whose lucid, austere verse expresses an undeviating affirmation of the values of the common man.

Thomas was educated in Wales and ordained in the Church of Wales (1936), in which he held several appointments, including vicar of St. Hywyn (Aberdaron) with St. Mary (Bodferi) from 1967, as well as rector of Rhiw with Llanfaelrhys from 1973.

He published his first volume of poetry in 1946 and gradually developed his unadorned style with each new collection. His early poems, most notably those found in Stones of the Field (1946) and Song at the Year's Turning Point: Poems 1942-1954 (1955), contained a harshly critical but increasingly compassionate view of the Welsh people and their stark homeland. In Thomas' later volumes, starting with Poetry for Supper (1958), the subjects of his poetry remained the same, yet his questions became more specific, his irony more bitter, and his compassion deeper. In such later works as The Way of It (1977), Frequencies (1978), Between Here and Now (1981), and Later Poems 1972-1982 (1983), Thomas was not without hope when he described with mournful derision the cultural decay affecting his parishioners, his country, and the modern world.