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Idris Davies (6 January 1905 – 6 April 1953) was a Welsh poet. Born in Rhymney, near Caerphilly in South Wales, Davies was the Welsh-speaking son of colliery chief winderman (mine lift operator) Evan Davies and his wife Elizabeth Ann. Davies became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English. He was the only poet to cover significant events of the early 20th century in the South Wales Valleys and the South Wales Coalfield, and from a perspective literally at the coalface. He is now best known for the verses "Bells of Rhymney" from his 1938 ''Gwalia Deserta'' (meaning literally "Wasteland of Wales"), which were later adapted into a popular folk song. == Life and career == After leaving the local school at the age of fourteen, for the next seven years Davies worked underground as a miner in the nearby McLaren Pit at Abertysswg and later at the Maerdy Pit, Pontlottyn. After an accident in which he lost a finger at the coalface, and active participation in the General Strike of 1926, the pit closed and he became unemployed. He spent the next four years following what he called "the long and lonely self-tuition game",〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Welsh Biography Online )〕 having been introduced to the work of Shelley by a fellow miner.〔''A Carol for the Coalfield and other poems'' (2002) Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, Corgi Series (ed. Meic Stephens) ISBN 0-86381-702-5〕 He qualified as a teacher through courses at Loughborough College and the University of Nottingham. During the Second World War he took teaching posts at various schools in London, where he became friends with Dylan Thomas. Before his first book was published in 1938, Davies' work appeared in the ''Western Mail'', the ''Merthyr Express'', the ''Daily Herald'', the ''Left Review'' and ''Comment'' (a weekly periodical of poetry, criticism and short stories, edited by Victor Neuburg and Sheila Macleod). In 1947 he returned to teach at a school in the Rhymney Valley.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Track leading to Blaen-Rhymney (C) Robin Drayton :: Geograph Britain and Ireland )〕 The poems for his second anthology, published by Faber and Faber in 1945, were chosen by T. S. Eliot. 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". His final volume, ''Selected Poems'', 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 St. David's Day radio broadcast, but told Davies that he did not feel the poem was particularly representative of Davies' work, as it was "not angry enough". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Idris Davies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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