Owen-Sheers-Skirrid-Hill - Crew Resource Pack

CREW
Resource Pack
GCE AS/A Level

in English Literature
Owen Sheers
Skirrid Hill
(Seren Books)
by Dr Catriona Coutts
Acknowledgements:
Commissioned and edited by Professor Kirsti Bohata (CREW), with funding from
Swansea University, Association for Welsh Writing in English and Learned Society
for Wales, in partnership with Books Council of Wales and Literature Wales.
www.swansea.ac.uk/CREW/alevelresources
Owen Sheers Skirrid Hill (Seren Books)
Contents
Biography 4
Contexts 7
Welsh Cultural Contexts 7
Welsh Literary Contexts 10
Global Contexts 11
Fiji 11
Landscape Poetry and Border Writing: Literary Contexts 12
Language and Form 15
Key Themes 17
Relationships and Partings 17
Fathers and Sons 19
Memory 20
Memories of Relationships 20
Memories of Childhood and Adolescence 20
Memories of Specific People 21
Memories of Place 23
Landscape and Nature 23
Country Life and Routine 25
Wales and Borders 25
Behind the Scenes/Appearance versus Reality 26
War 27
References to Literature, Legend and Music 28
Suggested Questions and Exercises 29
Suggested Resources 30
3
Biography
Owen Sheers is one of the most exciting reading – it was Motion who introduced him
and versatile contemporary English- to the Second World War poet Keith Douglas.4
language Welsh authors. He has written Douglas would later become the subject of
poems, novels, plays, screenplays, Sheers’ one-man play Unicorns, almost.
articles and extended non-fiction. Living in London after completing his
Owen Sheers was born in Suva, the MA, Sheers worked as a researcher for The
capital of Fiji, in 1974. He moved to London Big Breakfast, and as a freelance writer. His
aged three and then to Abergavenny aged first poetry collection, The Blue Book, was
nine. He began writing at primary school published by Seren in 2000. It received
in Abergavenny because, in his own words, generally positive reviews and sold well. It
“the response to every school event or trip was shortlisted for the Forward prize for
was to write a poem about it.”1 At the age best first collection. Around this time, Sheers
of ten he won the Abergavenny agricultural received an Eric Gregory Award and won
show poetry competition. Later he attended the Vogue Talent Contest for Young Writers.
King Henry VIII Comprehensive in His second poetry collection, Skirrid Hill,
Abergavenny (the former school of novelist was also published by Seren. It appeared in
and cultural critic, Raymond Williams). 2005 and won a Society of Authors Somerset
He went on read English at New College, Maugham Award. Reviewers noted that this
Oxford but found “the stultifying academic was a more mature and controlled collection.
atmosphere”2 restrictive and for a while In between these two collections, Sheers
he stopped composing poetry. However, published The Dust Diaries in 2004. This
a week-long poetry workshop with Paul unusual work sees the author go in search
Muldoon at the Hay Festival revitalised his of a distant ancestor of his, Arthur Cripps,
interest and he began to write again and, in who was a missionary in what is now
1997, enrolled on the poetry section of the Zimbabwe. It mixes biography and fiction
Creative Writing M. A. at the University of to tell the story of Cripps and his efforts to
East Anglia. There he was tutored by soon- gain justice for the African people, as well
to-be Poet Laureate Andrew Motion who as the story of Sheers’ search for him.
rated his work highly, describing it as “sharp, In 2007, Sheers published his first novel,
fresh, clear and ambitious,” and branding Resistance, an alternative history in which
him a poet to watch in the new millennium.3 the Nazis invaded Britain. It follows the
Sheers in turn praised Motion both for experience of a group of women in a farming
constructive criticism and for guiding his valley on the Welsh border whose husbands
1 Owen Sheers quoted in Nicholas Wroe, ‘Verses from the Valleys: A Life in Writing: Rugby-loving
Young Welsh Poet Owen Sheers Talks to Nicholas Wroe’, The Observer, 30 September, 2000, p. B11.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Sheers quoted in Nicholas Wroe.
4
have left without telling them to join the soldiers who also formed most of the cast. The
underground resistance, and the complex widely acclaimed Pink Mist (2013) began as a
relations they form with the occupying radio play before being staged by the Old Vic
German troops. The novel has been translated at Bristol and later touring the UK. It tells the
into 11 languages and in 2011 it was adapted story of three young men from Bristol who
into a film with Sheers writing the screenplay. enlist and join the war in Afghanistan, the
In 2007 Sheers went to America as a traumas they face there, and the difficulties
Dorothy and Lewis B. Culman Fellow at the of readjusting to civilian life. Yet the play
New York Public Library, remaining there does not promote an oversimplified anti-
until 2009. Much of his writing remained war message, exploring the beneficial and
focused on Wales though and in 2009, appealing side of army life in addition to the
Sheers published White Ravens as part of darker side. The above mentioned Unicorns,
Seren’s project to retell stories from the almost, based on the life of war poet Keith
Mabinogion. This short novel reworks the Douglas, premiered at the Hay Festival in 2018,
story of Branwen, Ferch Llŷr. In the same while his drama written for BBC Radio 4, If I
year, Sheers presented a six-part television Should Go Away, was inspired by Welsh writer
series called A Poet’s Guide to Britain, where he Alun Lewis’ Second World War writings.
examined poems that treated various aspects In 2011, Sheers became the first writer
of Britain’s diverse landscape (including an in residence at the Welsh Rugby Union,
episode on Welsh-Argentinean poet, Lynette spending a year in the international men’s
Roberts, who lived and worked in Llanybri team’s camp. A keen rugby player himself, he
in Carmarthenshire). An accompanying relished the experience which produced the
anthology with a wider selection of poetry and non-fiction work Calon, published in 2014.
a Foreword by Sheers appeared in the same His second novel, I Saw a Man was
year and the series was issued on DVD in 2010. published in 2015. In 2016 he composed
For Easter 2011, Sheers wrote the site- The Green Hollow, a ‘film-poem’ inspired
specific play The Passion for the National by the Aberfan tragedy to mark its fiftieth
Theatre of Wales. The production took anniversary. The production starred well-
place over 72 hours in Port Talbot with local known Welsh actors like Eve Myles, Michael
actor Michael Sheen directing and starring. Sheen, Sian Phillips and Jonathan Pryce.
Sheers also produced a novel version of 2018 saw the appearance of his second
the play entitled The Gospel of Us. In 2014 film-poem ‘To Provide for All: A Poem in
he wrote another site-specific play for the the Voice of the NHS’, and his extended
National Theatre of Wales and the World meditation on the battle of Mametz Wood,
War I Centenary Art Commissions – Mametz. simply entitled Mametz. Mametz drew on
Inspired by Sheers’ poem ‘Mametz Wood’, his previous creative work inspired by the
and incorporating some of the work of battle and has since been translated into
Anglo-Welsh poet David Jones, it was staged Welsh with a bilingual edition produced.
in a woodland near Usk, Monmouthshire In addition to the key works mentioned
and told the story of the bloody First World above, Sheers has written numerous articles,
War battle of Mametz Wood where 4,000 mainly for The Independent, travel writing,
Welsh soldiers were killed or wounded. essays of literary criticism on poets like Dylan
Other drama by Sheers has also dealt with Thomas and David Jones, and Forewords
war. The 2012 play The Two Worlds of Charlie to various books including the Library of
F was based on the experience of wounded Wales publication In the Green Tree (short
5
stories and letters by Alun Lewis), and modern poetry.5 He is a patron of various
Martin Parr’s photography book on Wales. organisations and enterprises, including
This last reveals his interest in other arts the New Welsh Review journal and the
– an interest that is also clear in his poem Cheltenham Poetry Festival. He is also
‘The Heath’ written to accompany Andy co-founder and a trustee of the Black
Sewell’s photography book of the same Mountains College project – an establishment
title. He also wrote the libretto for Rachel set up to provide further education on
Portman’s oratorio The Water Diviner’s Tale. sustainability and the environment.
From early in his career he has expressed
his desire to introduce more people to
5 Sheers quote in Nicholas Wroe.
6
Contexts
Welsh Cultural been introduced in his first poetry collection
The Blue Book. The poem ‘Skirrid’ from that
Contexts first collection is worth reading alongside
Skirrid Hill, as it sets up some of the themes
Owen Sheers was born in Fiji, studied at and images that will be so important in the
Oxford and the University of East Anglia, and later poetry collection. Skirrid is presented
has lived and worked in London and New as: “This hare-lipped hill, this broken spine
York. However, he is still a distinctly Welsh of soil/ that stretches across my window…”
writer. Much of his work deals with Wales Here the physical divide of the hill that will be
and he himself states that he has always a crucial image in Skirrid Hill is emphasised,
identified as Welsh; “there’s no doubt that as is the closeness the speaker feels to the
for as long as I can remember, even when hill. The mention of the hill being “stretched
living in London between the ages of 3 and across my window,” suggests familiarity and
9, I’ve identified as Welsh.” He adds that for affection. Moreover the poem is divided into
him that sense of identity has a lot to do with two sections, the first entitled ‘Facing West’
family: “My Mother is the dominant force in and the second ‘Facing East’, emphasising
our family, and her father, my Tad Cu, was its divided nature and positioning on the
immersed in Welsh culture, language, way of border of Wales, both of which will be very
life. He was a hugely attractive personality important in Skirrid Hill, as we shall see. In
and I’m sure when I thought of being Welsh Skirrid Hill Sheers explains that the name
as a child what I really thought of was of comes from the Welsh word ‘ysgyrid’ which in
being part of that family and their heritage.”6 turn derives from ‘ysgariad’ meaning divorce
Sheers’ Welsh home town of Abergavenny or separation. This also gives the collection
also had a huge influence on his writing. He one of its major themes. Thus the Welsh
remembers Abergavenny as “always being full landscape forms a crucial part of the context
of poetry,”7 and his primary school encouraged in which Skirrid Hill was produced. Sheers
writing. This may not be a uniquely Welsh also makes use of the local legend that the hill
phenomenon but poetry is prized and was split at the time of Christ’s crucifixion.
encouraged from an early age in Wales. Sheers’ Welshness has not always been
The landscape of Wales, particularly that recognised by reviewers, however, particularly
surrounding Abergavenny, has been a huge reviewers from outside of Wales. One review
influence on his poetry. The local hill, Skirrid of his debut poetry collection by Nicholas
Fawr [literally Great Skirrid], gives its name Wroe described him as “living in Wales”
to the collection Skirrid Hill, and the hill itself rather than as Welsh, though it noted that the
appears several times in the collection, having collection contained experiences from Sheers’
6 Owen Sheers, Correspondence with Catriona Coutts in preparation of these materials.

7 Nicholas Wroe, ‘Verses from the Valleys: A Life in Writing: Rugby-loving Young Welsh
Poet Owen Sheers Talks to Nicholas Wroe’, The Observer, 30 September, 2000, p. B11.
7
upbringing in Abergavenny and the influence laid the blame for all these faults on the
of his primary school on his poetry writing.8 Welsh language and Nonconformity.9 This
However, recognising Sheers as a Welsh poet report is often known as The Blue Books
is crucial in order to fully understand his work. after the colour of the volumes containing
It is also important to take into account the commissioners’ findings, and the episode
the fact that Sheers is a Welsh writer who became known as Brad y Llyfrau Gleison
uses the English language. There is a long and (Treachery of the Blue Books). Consequently
accomplished tradition of English-language when Education Acts were passed in 1870
writing from Wales. In the twentieth century and 1889 to provide universal education in
in particular, there are many instances of Wales, these Acts also mandated that the
Welsh writers who have done the same thing language of this education was to be English.
as Sheers, either from choice, or, more often, As a result, many children grew up speaking
because they did not learn Welsh or were not Welsh at home but English in school and
proficient in the language. The processes that the literature they studied was English
brought this about are important to consider literature. Gradually, English came to be seen
when studying the work of poets like Sheers. as the language of progress and high culture,
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth necessary for gaining good jobs. Many parents
centuries, Welsh regions like the Valleys stopped speaking Welsh to their children and
became heavily industrialised and attracted encouraged them to focus on English instead.
workers from outside as well as inside Wales, Children who were caught speaking Welsh
a migration that naturally increased the in school could be punished by being made
amount of English spoken in Wales. English to wear the Welsh Not – the child wearing it
gradually became the main language of the at the end of the school day was punished,
workplace, although there were still plenty usually beaten. These are the processes that
of Welsh-speaking communities. By 1901, led to the rise of a generation of talented
the proportion of people speaking Welsh in Welsh authors: R. S. Thomas, Dylan Thomas,
Wales slipped below 50% for the first time. Emyr Humphreys, Glyn Jones, Rhys Davies,
Earlier in the nineteenth century, in Alun Lewis, Gwyn Thomas, writing in English.
1847, three commissioners had been sent by In spite of being written in English, the
Parliament to ascertain the state of education work of these writers was unmistakably Welsh
in Wales. These commissioners spoke no in style and often in content. It depicted
Welsh so often had to rely on interpreters experiences common to the people of Wales
or evidence presented by English speakers, of both languages and its style and vocabulary
often Anglican vicars. Unsurprisingly, this led was often influenced by the Welsh language
to misunderstandings, and while educational and the English dialects of Wales. At first this
provision in some places was undoubtedly modern Anglophone Welsh literature was
poor, the commissioners’ report condemned regarded with suspicion by Welsh-language
the entirety of the Welsh people for being cultural circles that were concerned that
lazy, backward, ignorant and immoral, and it would mis-portray Wales for an English
8 Ibid.
9 Historians and other scholars have seen the 1847 Report into the State of Education
in Wales, the Blue Books, as underpinned by imperialist attitudes to Wales and the
Welsh Language. See Gwyneth Tyson Roberts, The Language of the Blue Books: Wales and
Colonial Prejudice (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011; original edition 1998).
8
audience (exemplified by the furore over or chose not to speak Welsh to their children,
Caradoc Evans’s My People (1915), a book Lloyd then the children did not learn Welsh. This
George tried to ban). There was considerable linguistic divide is dramatised in the title poem
overlap between English- and Welsh-language of Sheers’ collection The Blue Book, which first
communities, however, and many writers like talks about the 1847 Blue Book reports and
R. S. Thomas, Emyr Humphreys and Glyn then turns to another blue book – his younger
Jones chose to learn Welsh as adults and some brother’s Welsh exercise book. This brother,
became involved in protests on behalf of the ten years younger, has, unlike the poet, had
Welsh language. They continued to write the opportunity to learn Welsh at school. The
mainly in English as that was the language gulf the poet feels between himself and his
in which they felt most proficient, but they brother: “ten years younger,/ but a hundred
used their English-language writing to benefit and fifty years and one tongue apart,” is clear.
Wales. The rift between the two literatures Sheers confirms that this poem
was healed to a certain extent and work by was largely autobiographical:
English-language Welsh authors was accepted Yes, I was of that generation who had
as being Welsh, in spite of the language in parents or a parent who could speak Welsh
which it was written. Glyn Jones’s 1968 study but yet wasn’t even taught Welsh in school
of Anglophone Welsh writing is entitled as a second language. My younger brother
The Dragon Has Two Tongues (meaning was able to go through Welsh medium
Welsh and English are the two languages education, hence the poem the Blue Books,
of Wales) and contemporary scholars often which is about how languages fade and
refer to the ‘two literatures of Wales’. grow in the span of single generations.13
The tradition of Welsh authors writing Despite being unable to speak Welsh as a
in English continued as, although Welsh child he felt and still feels a closeness to it,
gradually stopped being forbidden in schools, “the language has always been around me,
the teaching of Welsh and Welsh-medium and I around it.”14 It is also an important part
teaching remained sporadic. Welsh was of his heritage. His motivation for learning
recognised as a core subject in Welsh schools Welsh properly was his daughters’ entering
by the British government in 1988,10 but only Welsh medium schools. Of this process he
became compulsory up to the age of fourteen writes: “I’m learning an ancient language
in all Welsh state schools from 1990.11 The alongside all the freshness, newness of a 6
upper age limit was increased to sixteen in and a 3 year old. It’s rather lovely, witnessing
1999.12 Therefore writers of Owen Sheers’ them step back into the linguistic river of
generation were often still taught in English their grandparents and great grandparents,
and if their families were not Welsh-speaking, and taking me by the hand with them…”15
10 John Davies, A History of Wales (London: Penguin, 2007), p. 703.

11 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/cymraeg/yriaith/tudalen/welsh.
shtml#:~:text=Welsh%20became%20a%20compulsory%20subject%20for%20all%20
pupils,years%2C%20from%20the%20ages%20of%205%20to%2016.>
12 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
9
The Welsh linguistic context is therefore him after the publication of The Blue Book,
important to take into account when reading sending him a copy of the collection and
Sheers’ work – and he regularly includes expressing his gratitude.18 The third poem
Welsh words (often names of places) in in Skirrid Hill, ‘Inheritance’, is subtitled
Skirrid Hill. ‘The Blue Book’ is the clearest “after R. S. Thomas” (meaning in the style
poetic expression of Sheers’ thoughts on of, or influenced by). Sheers has written
the Welsh language and his emotional articles about Dylan Thomas as well as the
relationship to it. Reading it alongside the screenplay for A Visit to America, a neo-noir
poems from Skirrid Hill could be a useful thriller about a private eye assigned to trail
exercise when considering him as a Welsh Dylan Thomas on the poet’s trip to America.
poet. It is also notable that he chose The He also wrote an admiring essay on David
Blue Book as a title not just for the poem Jones’ poem ‘In Parenthesis’ and a Foreword
but for his entire debut collection. This to the Library of Wales republication of In
suggests that he is very well aware of the the Green Tree comprising stories and letters
historical processes that have formed him from India by the Welsh Second World War
as a Welsh writer in the English language. writer, Alun Lewis. His play If I Should Go
Away is adapted from Lewis’ writings. Sheers
Welsh Literary is therefore very well aware of writing in a

tradition of English-language writers that
Contexts come from, or have connections with, Wales.
Sheers also draws on Welsh-language
Sheers sees himself as heir to a Welsh as well literature in his work, in particular the
as a global English poetic tradition,16 and is Mabinogion. As noted in the biography he
very aware of other English-language Welsh was one of the writers invited by Seren to
writers. He cites R. S. Thomas as a huge write a modern reworking of one of the tales
influence on his writing, both stylistically of the Mabinogion. White Ravens is a clever
and in subject matter.17 Indeed, he felt so retelling that reveals great familiarity with
great a debt to Thomas that he contacted the original tale and interestingly interprets
16 A decade after the publication of Skirrid Hill, Sheers showed his awareness of the interplay between the
Welsh context and the wider global context. In an article discussing Sheers’ two film-poems, Merlin Gable
writes: “In the two works Sheers grapples with two great myths of modern Welsh history: the Aberfan disaster,
which, with the flooding of Capel Celyn, is one of the defining moments of Welsh post-war history, and the
NHS – our welfare state arguably much more integral to the Welsh structure of feeling than the English. That
isn’t to say that Sheers sees himself writing in any quintessentially Welsh mode here, he insists: ‘I’m aware
of a tension in myself that is that you don’t want to be the writer who only writes on Welsh themes; I’m not
interested in that. We live in a globalised international world and I suppose my aspirations with the form
are to scale it up now to an international subject.’ Sheers identifies climate change here.” (Merlin Gable,
‘A Monument to the Communal’ https://www.iwa.wales/agenda/2019/01/a-monument-to-the-communal/).
As we will see, environmental concerns are very important to Sheers and in issues such as this he balances
his love for the local, particularly the landscape, with the knowledge that global action is necessary.
17 Owen Sheers, ‘Faith in Verse’, The Independent, 9 June 2018.
18 Nicholas Wroe, ‘Verses from the Valleys: A Life in Writing: Rugby-loving Young
Welsh Poet Owen Sheers Talks to Nicholas Wroe’, The Observer, 30 September,
2000, p. B11. Sheers adds that R. S. Thomas replied promptly and warmly.
10
the meanings of the Welsh names that come person, arguably have some similarities with
from it (Bendigeidfran = magnificent or blessed bardd gwlad poetry. No thing, process or person
crow/raven; Branwen = white crow/raven). In is too humble to be a subject for poetry and
the Afterword to the novel, Sheers noted that thus Welsh sheep farmers and maths teachers
he felt the Mabinogion tales were timeless sit alongside artists in the pages of Skirrid Hill.
and therefore still relevant today. He argued
that the myth of Branwen is “a surprisingly
subtle and layered tale, the focus of which is Global Contexts
defined as much by its contemporary readers
as the fourteenth-century storytellers who first
Fiji
shaped and mapped its narrative.”19 In addition Owen Sheers was born in Fiji and spent his
he draws parallels between the irrational earliest years there before his family returned
rage of Efnisien and Matholwch in the story to the very different environment of the
and soldiers returning traumatised from the United Kingdom. He has written an article
army, a comparison that is at the heart of his about the political situation in Fiji,22 and the
reworking of the tale and one made possible country and its people appear in some of his
by re-reading the original story in 2009.20 poems, most notably ‘A Stitch in Time’ in
Another possible Welsh literary influence Skirrid Hill and ‘The Fijian Lay Preacher’ and
on Sheers that certainly provides an interesting ‘The Umbilical Tree’ in The Blue Book. The
way of considering him is the predominantly last is an apparently autobiographical account
Welsh-language tradition of the Bardd Gwlad of a return to his birthplace seeking both
(literally land/country poet). This term was the local woman who buried his umbilical
used to describe a local poet, often one who cord under a tree and the tree itself.
may not have had much formal education As well as providing material for his work,
but who was well versed in the Welsh it is likely that his early experience of Fiji has
poetic tradition and wrote poems for their shaped Sheers’ way of looking at the world
community, usually on special occasions such and broadened his perspective. When asked
as births, weddings, funerals and so forth. about his memories of Fiji and the influence
Most importantly, the bardd gwlad was part of his early life there, he replied: “No specific
of the community and their gifts were at the memories but perhaps more powerfully,
disposal of their neighbours.21 It was very I had the story of being born on the other
different to the English Romantic idea of the side of the world. It was that which drew
poet as a figure of lone genius standing apart me back there at 18 when I spent 6 months
from society. Sheers is not necessarily writing in the country.”23 It is clearly an important
for his community but some of his poems, place for him and arguably contributes
particularly those on farming life and those to the global dimensions of his work.
written to celebrate or remember a particular
19 Owen Sheers, White Ravens (Bridgend: Seren, 2009), Kindle Location 1536.
20 Ibid., Kindle Location 1536.
21 On ‘bardd gwlad’ (plural beirdd gwlad) see The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales eds. John Davies,
Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines, Peredur I. Lynch (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2008) pp. 50-51.
22 Owen Sheers, ‘Reflections in the Rain’, New Statesman, 136.48 (2007), p. 46.
11
Landscape Poetry to New York and how Sheers himself tried to

adapt his style to suit his surroundings when
and Border Writing: living in Manhattan.27 Landscape influences
Literary Contexts poetry and this is important to consider when
reading Sheers’ landscape poetry. In ‘Skirrid
In addition to Welsh Writing in English,
Fawr’, for example, the two sides of the hill
there are two wider poetic movements
with its physically split ridge and position
of which Sheers could be said to be part
on the Wales/England border are reflected
– landscape poetry and border writing
in the two line stanzas and contrasting pairs
(both of which are also key facets of
of images: “east-west,” “dark… sunlit…” In
Anglophone Welsh literary traditions).
‘History’ the short words with their sharp
vowel sounds, repeated consonants and
Landscape partial rhymes: “still,” “oil,” “soil,” mimic the
sound of drilling and chipping that would
Landscape has long been a major subject of
once have filled the now abandoned quarry.
poetry, and landscape poetry is the literary
Sheers explains that landscape
tradition and influence that Sheers has most
poetry also helped him understand the
frequently acknowledged. In an article entitled
history and value of places as poetry
‘Poetry and Place’ he explores his dual loves of
and landscape came together:
landscape and poetry, explaining: “I fell in love
One of the most significant shared
with landscape before I fell in love with poetry
qualities of a landscape and a poem that
… the landscape affected me in ways I sensed
works (in both senses of the word) on us is
but didn’t know. It was only when I began
their ability to ‘situate’ us by translating the
reading poetry that I started to understand
abstract world of thought and feeling into
something about this ‘sensed’, yet undefined
a physical language. When I look out over
effect of place...”24 Poetry helped him
the Black Mountains from the ridge of the
understand the feelings he had for landscape
Hatterall… what I see before me seems to
and thus developed his relationship with it.
embody and define a multitude of vaguer
He recounts how many of the early poems
sensations and thoughts about the place:
he read and loved were “rooted within
about the relationship between humans
specific rural landscapes… This was poetry
and nature in this half-farmed part of the
that didn’t so much write about landscape
world; about Wales’s defensive history;
as write from within it.”25 He felt that in the
about the sweep of geographical time in the
work of these poets the landscapes about
glacier-carved valleys, and the shorter arc
which they were writing affected their style,
of historical time in the concentric rings
“often defining a poet’s language, rhythm,
of a hill-fort on the opposite ridge.28
voice and linguistic climate.”26 Later in the
In the Introduction to A Poet’s Guide to
article, he describes how Whitman’s style
Britain, he explained the way poets and poems
changed when he moved from the country
24 Owen Sheers, ‘Poetry and Place: Some Personal Reflections’, Geography, 93.3 (2008), 172-5 (175).
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
12
express this: “Poets of the landscape are Border Writer

gamekeepers of our cultural and communal
memories, the finders and the keepers of People who live on the borders of nations
landscape’s metaphoric qualities.”29 This or regions can often feel torn between
is well displayed in Sheers’ own poem two cultures. Either they feel drawn to
‘History’ from Skirrid Hill with which he both cultures so that they cannot choose
finishes his article on poetry and place. between them, or they feel excluded from
It can also be seen to a greater or lesser both. Equally common is a feeling that
extent in many other poems in Skirrid Hill, they belong to the border region itself,
for example ‘Y Gaer’, ‘Landmark’, and ‘The more than they do to either country/
Singing Men’. This will be discussed in region – this is a well documented feeling
more detail in the themes’ section below. in both the Scotland/England and Wales/
Sheers also stresses the importance England border areas. Borders also make
of landscape poetry at the current time. people aware of divisions and dualities,
He is a keen environmentalist, as can be whatever they may feel about them.
seen from his co-founding of the Black Owen Sheers grew up in Abergavenny,
Mountains College project, and sees only a few miles from the Wales/England
landscape poetry as performing a vital border. When asked about the influence of
role in conservation: “…poems about our the border in his case he replied: “It’s true
environments are reminders that unless we I was always fascinated by the border, and
embrace a more sustainable culture, then especially by how it could be physically
the shared experiences of generations, and manifested in the landscape around where
therefore our knowledge of ourselves, will I grew up near Abergavenny, the way the
be drastically culled.”30 Although the article hills of Wales gave to the flatter lands of
and introduction were written after the England. I’m interested in the ‘Borderers’
appearance of Skirrid Hill, it may be useful as a group of people too, and see myself as
to bear this environmental concern in mind partly shaped by that landscape…”31 However,
when reading Sheers’ landscape poems. An he adds that he has always identified himself
example would be the possible interpretation as Welsh, even when living in London.32
of ‘Hedge School’ as encouraging outdoors Moreover as a Welsh writer in English
education for children (this will be he is acutely aware of cultural and linguistic
discussed in more detail under ‘Landscape as well as national borders. Different
and Nature’ in the themes’ section). types of borders frequently appear in his
poetry and when considering his work it
is useful to bear in mind his upbringing
in the border country (the title of course
of one of the poems in Skirrid Hill).33
29 Owen Sheers, ‘Introduction’ in A Poet’s Guide to Britain, ed. by Owen

Sheers (London: Penguin, 2009), pp. xvii-xxiii (p. xxiii).
30 Ibid, p. xxiii.
32 Ibid.
33 Border Country is also the title of an influential novel by Raymond Williams, set in Pandy near
Abergavenny. It is ‘mapped’ at www.literaryatlas.wales. Like Sheers, Raymond Williams was
13
Literary Influences: R. S. electric poetry of R. S. Thomas to the peaty

and lyrical early poems of Seamus Heaney.
Thomas and Seamus Heaney This was poetry that didn’t so much write
Like any poet, Sheers has been inspired about landscape as write from within it. The
by a wide range of writers in addition geography of these poems – the stark North
to those already mentioned. When Wales uplands and the damp Irish farmland
asked about his general influences – operated within the poems as both author
Sheers gave the following answer. and subject, often defining a poet’s language,
Interviewer: What writers have inspired rhythm, voice and linguistic climate. In turn
and influenced you? I know you’ve talked the poems excavated the layered associations
in a few places about how influential of their environments, revealing these places
R. S. Thomas and Seamus Heaney have to be not just a physical locale, but also, in
been. Are there any others? Or anything Heaney’s phrase, ‘a country of the mind’:
outside of poetry or even wider literature geographical areas possessed of their own
that have inspired or influenced you? internal geographies of memory, history and
Owen Sheers: I never know how to answer language (Heaney 1989). Sometimes this
the influence question. RS was certainly metaphoric quality of landscape, its ability
important, as were Heaney and Hughes. to represent its own cultural associations,
Perhaps just as influential, though, was was itself made physical within the poem,
the fact I was working on Skirrid Hill while as is the case with Heaney’s bog-preserved
a writer in residence at the Wordsworth ‘Grauballe Man’ with his ‘cured wound’ that
Trust, so was exposed to some of the best ‘opens inwards to a dark elderberry place’,
poets of the day every week for around 20 or R. S. Thomas’s drowned villages beneath
or 30 weeks of the year. That was incredible, the North Wales reservoirs. Both these
in terms of tuning the ear and the mind examples are concrete images that represent
towards the frequency of poetry now.34 how the land can simultaneously hold and
As seen earlier, in the article by Nicholas embody the contemporary and historical
Wroe, Sheers explains how influential R. S. signatures of a place. Such explicit images,
Thomas was to him, a fact he reiterated in however, also point towards a more subtle
his later article ‘Faith in Verse’. Thomas and and enduring relationship between places
Heaney are the two poets Sheers mentions and poetry; a relationship based only upon
in ‘Poetry and Place’ as awakening him to what informs the place and the poem in
the link between poetry and landscape: terms of their linguistic or cultural context
Many of the early poems I was drawn to (often originally created by the geography
as a teenager were rooted within specific of an area) but also upon how the place
rural landscapes, from the sparse yet visually and the poem works upon us as readers.35
deeply interested in the relationship between literature, people and place.

34 Owen Sheers, Answer to questions asked by the compiler of this pack.
35 Owen Sheers, ‘Poetry and Place’, p. 172.
14
Language and Form

Most of the poems have no regular metre. burn of red white and green…”; in ‘Night
Most have some sort of stanza structure Windows’ the lover’s body is “the curves of
though the number of lines in a stanza a distant landscape… slick and valleyed…”
can vary within a single poem. Some A few poems describe bodies in terms of
are in completely free verse. This gives landscape. This can create a sensual effect
them a greater freedom and sense of in the love poems or a bleak one as in ‘The
naturalness. At times, short or broken lines Wake’. He often uses vocabulary from the
can be used to visually and rhythmically other arts, particularly music, and references
denote the partings and break-ups to light and shadow are also common.
which are so prevalent in the book. Sheers is a highly visual poet, sometimes
The rhyming structure of the poems is describing scenes that are very graphic
also irregular. Some have no rhymes at all but such as the farmers discovering the dead
most have at least one full rhyme which is soldiers in ‘Mametz Wood’ or the castrating
frequently supplemented by internal rhymes, of lambs in ‘Late Spring’. However, he
assonance, and half rhymes. A good example uses unusual comparisons and metaphors
of this is ‘Inheritance’ which has one example to describe the processes. The lambs’
of standard rhyme (“stable” and “fable” in testicles are “two soaped beans” suggesting
the second stanza), a close rhyme (“bones” softness and strangeness but not grossness.
and “stone” in the first stanza) and a few The bones of the dead men are “a chit
assonances such “ore” and “horse” in the of bone,” “the china plate of a shoulder
second stanza and “forged” and “core” and blade,” a “broken bird’s egg,” which convey
“lives” and “sides” in the third. These tie fragility and sorrow without being overly
the poem together, while the lack of a tight macabre. The reader is distanced from
regular rhyming structure gives the poet the any blood or gore and the images are
freedom necessary to express his views. familiar, domestic, even comforting.
Alliteration is used in many of the He is a precise poet, mentioning specific
poems to varying effects. In ‘Inheritance’ objects such as types of car in ‘Border
the repeated ‘s’ sound in the first two lines Country’, and specific names of real places.
mimics the stammer under discussion. In The place names are often in the Welsh
‘Four Movements in the Scale of Two’ on language like Moel Siabod in ‘Liable to Floods’
the other hand, the repeated ‘s’, ‘t’ and ‘b’ and Lleder Valley in ‘History’. In the twinned
make the sound more fluent, matching the pair of poems ‘Y Gaer’ and ‘The Hill Fort’
stroking and caressing that is occurring. the Welsh name is the title of one and the
Similes and metaphors are prevalent. subtitle of the other inviting considerations of
Sheers brings together vocabulary from very duality, identity, and perhaps different ways of
different areas to create unusual and startling knowing the landscape. In this pair of poems
images which force the reader to think the Welsh is translated but in all others it is
about the poem and its subject(s) in a new not. The Welsh names centre those poems that
way. In ‘Flag’ the Welsh flag is: “A Chinese contain them firmly in the Welsh countryside
15
and give a distinct sense of place. They also act

as a reminder that Wales has two languages,
even in this border area which sometimes
seems Anglicized. One possible effect is to
make the land a repository of the earlier
Welsh-language culture of the area; to connect
landscape (or place) and the Welsh language.
Skirrid Hill contains many poems in the
first person, both singular and plural. This
makes the poems more personal and tends
to heighten the emotions, though we must be
wary of a simplistically biographical reading.
16
Key Themes
There are several key themes in Skirrid Hill are broken by death, disagreement, or some
in addition to those indicated above that will other parting. Indeed, the very title of the
be discussed in this section. Each subsection collection is based upon division. The note
will begin with a list of the poems that use on the title explains that Skirrid comes from
the theme or themes in question and then go the Welsh ysgyrid deriving from ysgariad
on to examine a few in greater detail. It will meaning divorce or separation. As Sarah
also make occasional links to poems from Crown explains in her review in The Guardian,
Seamus Heaney’s Fieldwork. At the end of Sheers uses Skirrid Fawr, itself cloven,
each section the Heaney poems (if any) that as “the metaphor that unites his second
contain these themes will be listed. However, collection.” Crown adds “It is these ideas [of
some key themes spill over into other poems divorce and separation] – which have their
in recurring imagery (for example the use visual representation in the hill itself… that
of natural imagery to describe people or form the thematic core [of Skirrid Hill]...”36
objects), so many poems appear in two Additionally, Sheers refers at times to the
or more categories and the list should be local legend that claims that Skirrid Fawr was
seen as indicative rather than exhaustive. split by a landslide caused by an earthquake
or lightning strike at the moment of Christ’s
Relationships crucifixion – another instance of parting,

albeit one that contains the idea of return/
and Partings resurrection and a transformed relationship.
The majority of the relationships are
Relationships: Inheritance, Marking Time, between lovers. The language is frequently
Valentine, Winter Swans, Night Windows, sensuous with a focus on touch as well as
Keyways, On Going, Y Gaer, The Hill Fort, sight. In ‘Four Movements in the Scale of
Song, Landmark, Four Movements in the Two’ Sheers reveals the importance of touch
Scale of Two, Stitch in Time, The Wake in a relationship, “bodies, like souls,/ only
Partings: Y Gaer, The Hill Fort, Marking exist when touched.” A recurring image is
Time, Valentine, Night Windows, Keyways, that of lovers fitting together perfectly: the
On Going, Landmark, Four Movements in tumblers of a lock (‘Keyways’), the hands
the Scale of Two, Stitch in Time, The Wake that fold “like a pair of wings settling after
This section will begin with the two flight” (‘Winter Swans’). In some cases the
interlocking themes that are at the heart of image is brief as in ‘Winter Swans’; in others
this volume and are touched upon in the it is extended throughout the poem, as in
majority of the poems. Relationships and ‘Keyways’. Starting from the cutting of a new
all that that concept includes – family, love, set of keys, Sheers uses this image to chart a
sex – are repeatedly reflected upon by Sheers, whole relationship. At the start of the poem
but almost invariably these relationships the narrator is “an uncut key, a smooth blade,
36 Sarah Crown, ‘Review of Skirrid Hill’, The Guardian, 25 February, 2006.
17
edentate,/ waiting your impression, the milling emphasises the poet’s sadness and confusion.
and grooves/ of moments in time, until our This can be read as referring to both the
keyways would fit...” The process of lovers practical thing that needs to be done at the
getting to know each other is likened to end of the relationship and the changing of
cutting a key to fit. The image changes briefly the key and lock that was their relationship.
to describe their bodies fitting together “like It is also possible to read this desire to
a pair of Siamese twins sharing one lung,” but completely fit with and unlock another person
then quickly returns to the image of the key: as sinister. While it seems harmless and
From then on I was sure even sweet in this case, it raises interesting
we were keyed alike. and important questions about boundaries
That our combinations matched, and privacy within relationships. Does
our tumblers aligned precisely to give and the desired perfect fit indicate simply a
roll perfectly into the other’s empty spaces. loving and complete reciprocity or does
In the next stanza, the lovers are curled it have a darker possessive element?
up together at night, “a master key fit.” But Sarah Crown notes that nearly all the
then, still in keeping with the image, the poet poems end with the lover leaving, 37 or
asks: “So when did the bolt slip? The blade with the poet alone, looking back on a
break in the mouth?” The violence of this shared time, as in ‘Valentine’. Partings
image rests upon the overlay of the human occur in other relationships too; the poem
body upon the imagery of locks and keys: the ‘On Going’ describes the death of a loved
mouth here is an unusual name for a keyhole one, while ‘Border Country’ muses on lost
while the blade-like key has broken off in the youth and the death of a friend’s father.
lock. But a blade in a human mouth suggests ‘Farther’, ‘Y Gaer’ and ‘The Hill Fort’, all
something far more painful and catastrophic, muse on departed or separated loved ones.
while the word ‘mouth’ could also suggest One of the few positive relationship poems
something spoken, or mouthed: perhaps even in the collection is ‘Inheritance’ where the
sharp words. They gradually realise that it is poet considers his parents’ relationship. As
Useless…to try to unpick the months Sarah Crown notes, “there is a sense almost
back to that second when, for the first time, of marvel at the beautiful simplicity of their
one of us made a turn that failed to dock, lifelong union.”38 The poet considers the very
… leaving us different attributes he has inherited from
waiting the expected click, which never came. each parent, then expresses his “desire” to
The click can apply to the concept of people have a relationship like the one they have
‘clicking’ when they understand each other or “forged.” “Forged” seems to suggest that the
get on instinctively as well as to the click of a relationship has had to be worked at but unlike
lock when it opens. The conceit of keys being most of the others in the collection, it has
cut and fitting is thus expanded to encompass been successful. However, forged can of course
the entire relationship. Thanks to the poet’s mean faked or copied as well as created. The
tenderness this is in no way mechanical and use of words like “hammer,” and “core,”
the last two lines: “So strange then, that we frequently associating with blacksmith’s
should do this now,/ this cutting of keys, forges, strongly suggests created as opposed
just when we’re changing all the locks,” to faked, but it is possible to read against
37 Sarah Crown, ‘Review of Skirrid Hill’.

38 Ibid.
18
the grain and see the alternative meaning instantaneous ‘shutter’s blink’ to the short
undermining the apparently intended one. breaths of the man, to the long myth of the
This ambiguity could be deliberate on the part stories attached to the hill, to the even longer
of the poet or it could be that the language he sense of geological time in the ‘rocks’. This
uses is not completely under his control and walk is one the pair have done many times
works to undercut his intended meaning. (they “climbed Skirrid again”), but this time
Relationships feature in far fewer of the the walk redefines their relationship. The
poems in Heaney’s Fieldwork and are generally pun on the word ‘father’ is also important
more positive and lasting than those in Skirrid in pinpointing the relationship between the
Hill. The exception is ‘The Skunk’ where the two men (which has an intimacy that could
poet appears to be missing his spouse/lover. on first reading be mistaken for lovers).
Interestingly, in ‘Homecomings’ Heaney uses Just over midway through the poem (line
a similar image to many of Sheers’ – the poet 19 of 32), the balance between the two lives
asks his partner to: “Mould my shoulders shifts: “and again I felt the tipping in the scales
inwards to you… Be damp clay pouting.” As in of us/ the intersection of our ages”. Although
poems like ‘Keyways’, the lovers are seen to fit it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where their
together perfectly. However this comes at the ages (or experiences?) intersect, the image
end of the poem suggesting a happy ending of tipping scales suggests that the son is
that does not usually occur in Skirrid Hill. beginning to take the place of the father – to
Relationships in Fieldwork: The Otter, move ‘farther’ into the role of adult, away from
The Skunk, Homecomings , A Dream of his own father, and perhaps in due course
Jealousy, Fieldwork, The Harvest Bow. With become a father himself. Is the tipping of
the possible exception of ‘The Skunk’ there the scales a measure of relative vulnerability,
are none that really deal with partings except with the son perhaps envisaging a time when
perhaps for the memory poems for the he will become responsible for his parent, as
dead which will be listed under Memory. now he waits for his father to catch up rather
than vice versa? By the end of the poem, the
Fathers and Sons poetic persona, ‘I’, has shifted in his sense of
self: he feels both adrift as he reaches for a
Farther, Border Country, ‘Y new independence (“every step apart”), and
Gaer’, ‘The Hill Fort’ awed by the sense that as he becomes his
Another relationship of great importance own man he is also becoming his father: “I’m
in Skirrid Hill is that between fathers and another [step] closer to you.” There is also
sons. The ‘border’ of time which divides the a sense however that is heightened by the
generations is another motif. In ‘Border reference to the legend of Skirrid Fawr “…that
Country’ described above, the untimely cleft of earth/ split they say by a father’s grief/
death by suicide of a father precipitates at the loss of his son to man.” This suggests
children across the border into adulthood. In that they will be parted, although, as noted
‘Farther’ the axis of time that exists between earlier, if the reference is to the crucifixion
the son (the ‘I’ of the poem) and his father, then they may be reunited, their relationship
tilts as they climb Skirrid: ‘Half way up and transformed, as it is starting to be in the poem.
I turned to look at you’. The father’s “head ‘The Hill Fort’ is perhaps the most moving
[is] the colour of the rocks,” presumably portrayal of a father-son relationship. It is
because he is growing old. The poem is possible that this poem and its companion
full of oblique references to time, from the ‘Y Gaer’ are also referencing the Skirrid Fawr
19
crucifixion myth but it is not certain as the its short stanzas to draw one very focused
hill is not named in either poem and the image, similar to a photographic snapshot.
relationships seem very human. In ‘The Hill It is also interesting to note that as these
Fort’, the father walks up the hill with his son relationships all appear in memories they
who is full of life and vitality “charging the are naturally in the past and so the outcome
hill/ as wild as the long-maned ponies.” The of the relationship is already known. This
bond between father and son is beautifully suggests that the most important thing about
depicted. The father, who would “crouch so the relationships is their ending (with the
their eyes were level,/ one hand at the small possible exception of ‘Wild Swans’) and that
of his [the son’s] back,” points out the various ending comes to define the entire relationship.
towns they can see, with the underlying
message that generations come and go and Memories of Childhood
that it is the impression a person makes while
on the earth that matters not the longevity
and Adolescence
of their life. In these few short lines, the These poems form some of the most
father is seen to be nurturing, teaching and vibrant of the collection. Particularly notable
protecting his son. This makes the death of are ‘Hedge School’ (which takes its title
the boy and the father’s loss all the sadder. from a work by Heaney that was republished
in Fieldwork as ‘Glanmore Sonnets’),
Memory ‘Late Spring’ and ‘Border Country’.
‘Hedge School’ describes collecting
Memory: Marking Time, Valentine, Night blackberries on the way home from school,
Windows, Border Country, Hedge School, reproducing the child’s musing on how
Joseph Jones, On Going, Landmark, best to gather, transport and eat them. This
Shadow Man, The Singing Men, The issue, so small to an adult, is crucial to a
Wake, The Steelworks, History child and becomes the centre of the poem.
Memory is another major theme in However, the adult poet filters the child’s
Skirrid Hill. Many of the poems are written thoughts through his own language. Images
in the past tense with the poet looking back such as “tightly packed as a nervous heart,”
on events, including the majority of the “cobwebbed and dusty as a Claret/ laid down
relationship poems. There are memories for years in a cellar,” and “hedgerow caviar,”
of childhood and youth, of relationships, are clearly not the words of a child. However,
of particular people and of community and these words capture the spirit of the child’s
historical events. Memory is also a major thoughts – the excitement, delight and wonder
theme in Fieldwork though there are some – and so the poem is extremely effective.
differences in the ways in which it is treated. It is interesting to note here that as
well as taking the title of the poem from
Memories of Relationships Heaney, Sheers is playfully subverting the
original concept of a Hedge School. Hedge
Most of the poems that cover this have already Schools were informal schools established
been discussed in the relationship section so in Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth
they will just be mentioned here. The prime century to provide education for Catholic
examples are ‘Marking Time’, ‘Valentine’ and nonconformist children at a time where
and ‘Four Movements in the Scale of Two’. there was either little formal education or
‘Valentine’ is particularly interesting as it uses the official system was Anglican. They were
20
probably called Hedge Schools because, prior of the death of the friend’s father which
to the repeal of the penal laws in 1782, the derails their young lives and the whole poem.
schools were illegal and so they had to meet The speaker recalls “…life put on the brakes/
wherever they could and accommodation and pitched you, without notice,/ through
was frequently basic though they usually the windscreen of your youth.” The image
met in some sort of shelter like a house or a of life as a car jerking to a halt references
barn. Here, though, Sheers is playing with the the wrecked cars the children have playfully
concept by suggesting a literal hedge school, pretended to drive. The friend is “pitched”
one where children learn facts pertaining from their childhood as symbolised by the play
to nature, facts they would never learn in a cars. When the poem starts again, the poet is
conventional classroom. In line with Sheers’ remembering returning to the quarry years
passion for landscape and the environment later and finding it changed: “I came back
it could suggest the importance of the things once, to find cars smaller/ or the undergrowth
learned in this kind of school: a respect for grown,” – a common trope in memories of
nature and joy in what it can produce. childhood places. In a sense this poem is
Heaney uses the term hedge school in the about the loss of innocence, symbolised by the
second of ‘Glanmore Sonnets’ and depicts image of “pitching… through the windscreen
it as a place where poetry is learned, coming of your youth,” and the change of perspective
from and returning to the ground: “Vowels that that loss brings. The place is smaller,
ploughed into other, opened ground,/ Each drabber, no longer the delightful playground
verse returning like the plough turned round.” of youth. The buzzards that had once flown
In this case the land could be the natural high “striking their cries against a flint sky,”
countryside or the specifically Irish land. now fly “like a rag/shaken out in the wind.” The
‘Late Spring’ recalls childhood memories scene is dark and bleak with “spittle sheep,”
in a similar way to ‘Hedge School’. The and “ink-dot cows.” The poem closes with the
first stanza conveys the child’s pride: “It memory of a boy who “meandered between
made me feel like a man/ when I helped my the hedges… trying once more to find his way
grandfather...” Again the words are that of an home.” This suggests that even children can
adult but the feeling comes from the child. seem lost, from an adult’s perspective at least.
The same is true with the poem’s imagery: Consequently ‘Border Country’ is darker than
the lamb “like a cello,” the “strange harvest the other childhood poems like ‘Hedge School’
of the seeds we’d sown.” As in ‘Hedge School’ that keep the child’s perspective throughout.
the adult’s words reflect the child’s vision.
‘Border Country’, on the other hand, feels Memories of Specific People
a more serious and mature poem. It reflects
on changes in the landscape: “Filled in years Memories of people abound in Skirrid Hill.
ago,” and remembers the time spent there Many are unnamed, as in the various poems
with a friend, “shouldering the kick of your that remember a lover or lovers (since they
father’s shotgun;/ or playing at war in the are unnamed it is impossible to say whether
barn,/ dying again and again…” These dark the lover who appears in different poems is
games foreshadow the tragedy that is to come the same person). This makes them seem
but are displaced for the time being in the archetypal; representative of lovers rather than
next stanza by the more innocent images of specific lovers. This is lessened a little by the
imitating buzzards and pretending to drive poet addressing them as you and by the clear
the abandoned cars. Then comes the tragedy element of memory in many of the poems
21
but there is very little specific description. well as the possibility that he is not quite
The features mentioned: “heels” and “skirt” good enough, at sport or in life. Therefore
in ‘Valentine’; “pelvis,” “head,” and “toes,” while this poem does not display its subject
in ‘Night Windows’ could belong to any positively, it is not completely unsympathetic.
woman. In some poems such as ‘Keyways’ This poem has links with ‘The Singing
it is impossible even to say whether the Men’ although the latter is discussing a
relationship is between man and woman, two phenomenon rather than a person. While at
men, two women, or a non-binary or gender first seeming to romanticise this life the poem
fluid couple. The only poem that definitely does convey its hardship and loneliness but
genders the lovers is ‘Four Movements in still celebrates the skill, versatility and passion
the Scale of Two’ where they are named of these musicians. In both cases the poet
as “she,” and “him”. Other poems suggest speaks about those marginalised by society
the lover is female because of mentions of and thus appears to act as a remembrancer
clothing: “skirt,” “dress,” “heels,” but this is of those who would otherwise be forgotten.
never confirmed (though it is pretty heavily Writing about ‘ordinary’ people is a strong
implied with the landscape comparison in trait within the bardd gwlad tradition.
‘Night Windows’). Equally it should not However it is not completely clear that this
be assumed that the narrative voice of the is what Sheers intends to do here. In neither
poem is male, just because it is written case does he consider himself ‘like’ his subject.
by a male poet. Therefore these nameless The subjects of ‘The Singing Men’ come from
lovers can stand as archetypes for romantic many places and a different class to Sheers,
and sexual relationships of all kinds. and while Sheers may have come from the
One exception to these poems that do same community as Jones or people like him,
not name their subjects is ‘Joseph Jones’, a there is nothing in the poem to suggest any
poem that depicts the eponymous character sense of kinship, despite the potential fleeting
– a young man from South Wales. It is very sympathy revealed at the end. It is certainly
specifically a poem about memory as it not a celebratory poem in the tradition of
begins: “Of course I remember Joseph,” the bardd gwlad but Sheers may be drawing
before going on to recount the traits that the on or adapting the style of that tradition to
poet remembers: “Fifty press-ups before a portray either a particular person or a type
night out,/ hair sheened with gel,/ air dead of person from his past. ‘The Singing Men’
with scent when he passed.” It is possible to is more celebratory, recognising the skill of
read this poem in two ways. The first is as a the singers and their importance to society;
portrait of a specific person from the poet’s the singer at Balham tube is “welcoming the
past. The second is as a representation of a commuters home.” The ambiguity of Sheers’
type of person – in this case Welsh working- poetic representation of the singers leaves
class youth. This becomes more plausible readers considerable room to decide (and
when the commonness of his first and second to assemble evidence) for themselves on
names is considered. Either way though, the whether he is writing in solidarity with the
portrait that emerges is not a positive one – singers or whether he is objectifying them
Jones is seen drinking, fighting and bragging. by romanticising and exoticising, even as
However, there is a poignancy to the final he expresses sympathy and appreciation.
two lines “a trial once/ with Cardiff Youth,” Poems remembering specific people
that suggests wasted potential and a lack of are also plentiful in Fieldwork. Two are
options that have shaped his character, as specifically entitled ‘In Memoriam’ and
22
many others fulfil the same function. Some, Steelworks’ is inspired by a specific event –
like the Irish musician Sean O’Riada were the closure of the steel plant at Ebbw Vale –
well-known; others, like the anonymous old which was a social and economic disaster for
woman in ‘A Drink of Water’, are presumably the community. In writing about it, Sheers is
local people the poet knew. Poems like again playing the role of community poet.
the latter can be seen as celebrating the In ‘The Singer’s House’ Heaney also
marginalised and forgotten in a similar way evokes memory of place and community. He
to Sheers. It is also interesting that while describes a house he remembers and lists
men are named occasionally in Sheers the sights, sounds and cultural activities
and more often in Heaney, no female associated with it. For this reason it is both
subject of a poem is named outside of the a personal memory and a communal one. As
dedications of Sheers’ ‘On Going’ and the noted in the section on language above, Sheers
first of Heaney’s ‘Glanmore Sonnets’. too makes extensive use of music in his poetry,
The focus of Heaney’s memory poems drawing on it for vocabulary and images.
varies more than those of Sheers. ‘The Memory: Triptych I, The Strand at Lough
Strand at Lough Beg’, for example, recounts Beg, A Drink of Water, A Postcard from North
the death of a countryman shot at an army Antrim, Casualty, The Singer’s House, In
roadblock. Here the man is remembered Memoriam Sean O’Riada, Glanmore Sonnets,
but the way in which he died is equally September Song, The Skunk, Leavings, The
important to remember. In contrast, ‘A Harvest Bow, In Memoriam Francis Ledwidge
Postcard from North Antrim’, although
remembering another man who was shot,
focuses on the man himself and his distinctive Landscape
possessions and actions. Others like the long
poem ‘Casualty’ mix the two elements.
and Nature
Landscape: Skirrid Fawr, Y Gaer, The
Memories of Place Hill Fort, Border Country, Farther,
Flag, The Steelworks, History
Some of the poems contain memories of Nature: Wild Swans, Trees, Hedge
places that are not from childhood. ‘History’ School, Swallows, Calendar
is subtitled “Lleder Valley, North Wales” and Landscape is one of the most prevalent
therefore immediately announces itself as a themes in Skirrid Hill, as is nature. It is
poem about the history of a specific place. important to make a distinction between
This poem will be examined in detail in the landscape and nature here and the best way
section on landscape below, but it is important to do so is in Sheers’ own words: “without
to mention here because of its message – us, landscape would not exist. There would
that the history of the valley can be better be nature, but no landscape. Landscape
learned from its landscape than from any is what happens to nature when we turn
book and that it is written within the local up…”39 Consequently, “poems of landscape
people: “in every head, across every heart/ are also poems about us.”40 Nature on the
and down the marrow of every bone.” ‘The
39 Owen Sheers, ‘Introduction’ in A Poet’s Guide to Britain, p. xviii.

40 Ibid., p. xviii. In Welsh there are two words for landscape ‘tirlun’ which literally means land-picture
and evokes landscape painting, and ‘tirwedd’ which refers to a wider sense of topography: both natural
23
other hand, is separate to people. To this while the sites he homes in on are
definition I will add that nature includes living linked by their liminality…The ruptured
things that are not people, so, for example, terrain reflects the collection’s fractured
nature is the primary subject of Sheers’ bird emotional landscape.” The frequently
poems like ‘Wild Swans’ and ‘Swallows’. Both mentioned cleft of Skirrid Fawr is the
nature and landscape appear in Skirrid Hill, prime example – it visually symbolises the
though usually people interact with nature partings that constantly reoccur. 41
in some way. Even a poem like ‘Swallows’, As mentioned in the section on language,
which seems to be wholly fixed on the birds, Sheers also frequently imagines the body as
sees them flying between the telephone a landscape. In ‘Night Windows’, “the curves
wires which are of course manmade. of a distant landscape [are]/ opening across
This interaction between people and nature your pelvis,” giving a sense of strangeness and
that creates landscape is particularly evident in wonder to the lovemaking as it defamiliarises
two of the poems in the section on community the body. Sheers does this in both ‘The Wake’
memories: ‘The Steelworks’ and ‘History’. and ‘The Singing Men’. In ‘The Wake’ lungs
In the former the abandoned steelworks has are described as “two pale oceans/ rising
left a manmade mark on the valley but is and falling in the rib cage’s hull.” Again this
gradually being taken over by nature once defamiliarises the body, giving it a sense of
more with sheep passing through the carpark mystery and depth. In ‘The Singing Men’,
(though sheep of course come from farms the men’s “tendons in their necks [are]
and therefore represent a different type of making valleys in their stubble,” visually
interaction between people and nature so this displaying the effort of their singing.
is not completely straightforward). The birds Landscape and nature are also important
nesting in the vents, however, are completely in Fieldwork, appearing in some way in the
independent of humans, and since no people majority of the poems. In some like ‘Glanmore
are placed in the scene the overwhelming Sonnets’ and ‘September Song’, nature and
effect is that of wilderness. In ‘History’ the landscape are crucial themes. In others, such
disused quarry gives evidence of similar as ‘The Strand at Lough Beg’ and ‘The Otter’,
human involvement. There is no clear divide they simply form a backdrop or provide
between human and nature, indeed Sheers imagery. Of those that have nature as a theme,
deliberately brings the two closer together by some like ‘September Song’ show technology
describing the blackbird’s song in language and humankind intertwined with nature as
normally associated with industry: “the only in the majority of Sheers’ poetry; in others
chiselling,” “drilling its notes.” As a result, like ‘Song’ the natural scene is untouched.
these poems are excellent examples of Sheers’ Landscape: Glanmore
ideas about landscape revealing human history Sonnets, High Summer
– indeed ‘History’ is the poem he printed at Nature: Glanmore Sonnets, Song,
the end of his article on poetry and place. September Song, Homecomings, Fieldwork
Landscape in the poems also reflects
other themes. Sarah Crown notes that the
landscapes in Skirrid Hill are “characterised
habitually by gaps, shadows and boundaries…
and manmade features of landscape.

41 Sarah Crown, ‘Review of Skirrid Hill’.
24
Country Life is an important influence on Sheers’ writing

and the nation appears in a few poems in the
and Routine collection. ‘Flag’ is the only poem where it
is the main theme but it makes important
Country life and routine: The Farrier, appearances in ‘Farther’ and ‘Skirrid Fawr’ –
The Equation, Hedge School, Late Spring two poems that also meditate upon different
Linked to landscape but not wholly part sorts of borders. Therefore this section will
of it is another common theme of Skirrid discuss the themes of Wales and borders side
Hill: country life and routine. Several poems by side. Ironically, the poem ‘Border Country’
describe farm and country work; shoeing does not mention geographical borders.
a horse in ‘The Farrier’, castrating lambs Its title presumably refers to its apparent
in ‘Late Spring’. In this he is following, location in Sheers’ childhood country near
consciously or otherwise, the example of the Wales/England border and the fact that
the bardd gwlad, writing about local events it discusses a different type of border – that
and people. He may also be attempting which marks the boundary between youth
to commemorate and preserve in verse and adulthood, innocence and experience.
customs that may not continue much longer. ‘Flag’ focuses solely on Wales, with no
In that case he is acting as a recorder or mention of its borders, musing on the nation
‘remembrancer’ for the farming community by using the Welsh dragon flag as its symbol. It
where he grew up and those like it. There is not a positive image, however. The poet first
is no clear evidence for this in the poems considers some sightings of the flag. These
but given the importance of memory to the present a motley array; the flag is variously
collection it is a reasonable interpretation. “hung like wet washing,” “on the flat end wall
This is also an important theme and of a Swansea gym,/ fading to the east,” (both a
background in Fieldwork. ‘High Summer’ literal and metaphorical fading one presumes)
discusses the collecting of maggots for fishing and “tied to the side of a SNAX caravan,/
bait and has a farming background with throwing fits on its pole, high in the motorway
objects like tractors and barns. ‘The Harvest wind…” The suggestion that the dragon is “so
Bow’ describes the custom of making the suitable” an emblem for Wales because it is
harvest bow then continues the imagery to “the currency of legend, the tale/ that is truer
talk of the poet’s attraction to the one making in its fiction than facts can ever be,” appears
the bow. Unlike Sheers, Heaney generally positively but is immediately undercut by the
does not make the farming activity or custom following stanza: “an old country pulsing to
the entire centre of the poem, instead using be young/ and blessed with a blind spot bigger
it as sub-theme, background and/or image. than itself…” Wales is depicted as a nation
Country life and routine: Triptych unable to modernise; now the comments on
I, High Summer, The Harvest Bow the dragon suggest that its people are perhaps
deceiving themselves. The final stanza depicts
Wales and Borders the flag as “a tourniquet, a bandage tight on

the wound/ staunching the dreams of what
Wales: Skirrid Fawr, Farther, Flag might have been.” This suggests a loss of
Borders: Skirrid Fawr, opportunity on the part of the nation and
Farther, Border Country possibly even that the flag is hindering that
As discussed in the contexts’ section, Wales opportunity. The poem’s epigraph adds an
extra layer of complexity and will be dealt
25
with in the section on references below.

‘Farther’ and ‘Skirrid Fawr’ both meditate Behind the Scenes/
upon Wales and its borders, ‘Farther’ just in
passing, ‘Skirrid Fawr’ to a greater extent. In
Appearance
‘Farther’ “a country unrolled before us,/ the versus Reality
hedged fields breaking on the edge of Wales,”
designating Wales as a country rather than Behind the Scenes: Last Act, Show, Service
just a part of the United Kingdom and clearly Appearance versus reality: Last Act, Show,
delineating the border. The use of the word Drinking with Hitler, Service, L.A Evening
breaking suggests waves rather than fields A minor theme in Skirrid Hill but one that
and thus the difference between Wales and is still found in many poems is the idea of
England is like sea and land – very different showing what happens ‘behind the scenes’
but also movable and unclear in places as or behind a façade that is the only thing the
tides frequently alter the point at which the public see, be it in show business, a restaurant
sea ends and the land starts. Although Wales kitchen or, most disturbingly, the mask of
is depicted as an island in some mythology an official responsible for criminal acts.
and contemporary literature and art,42 ‘LA Evening’ is a touching portrayal of
here, Wales is a sea of fields whose hedges an elderly actress looking at photographs of
break upon (the landmass of) England. herself in her starring roles. She is portrayed
‘Skirrid Fawr’ expands on these nautical with stars like Olivier and Brando, actors
and border images. The hill is “a lonely hulk/ who “wear the faces of her friends” but she
adrift through Wales.” The difference between is alone. She “leaves/ before the roll call of
the two sides of the hill is emphasised with the credits,” reluctant perhaps to shatter the
a line of brief comparisons: “Her east-west illusion. Her evening routine emphasises
flanks, one dark, one sunlit…” The poem her loneliness – she appears to have only
then goes on to reflect on another type of pets for company – and fear – she checks the
border – the “vernacular.” For him the hill and sensitivity of the intruder light. The dimming
border symbolise “the unspoken words/ of an of the light in the final stanza echoes the
unlearned tongue.” This can be interpreted sun that “leaks into the ocean,” in the first
as either an attempt to hear a message from and suggests the decline of her career.
the landscape or as regret for being unable ‘Service’ is less poignant and more
to speak Welsh – a subtler version of his informative, depicting the kitchen of a busy
poem ‘The Blue Book’ – or both. Here Wales, restaurant. The poem portrays two completely
the Welsh language and the border merge. different worlds: the chaos of the kitchen and
Seamus Heaney’s treatment of nation the serenity of the dining room. The poet
(Ireland and/or Northern Ireland) in also muses on the journey the oysters have
poems such as ‘Triptych’, ‘The Toome made to reach the kitchen. This is similar
Road’, ‘The Strand at Lough Beg’, ‘A to Heaney’s poem ‘Oysters’ where he thinks
Postcard from North Antrim’, ‘The about the Romans transporting their oysters
Casualty’ ‘Glanmore Sonnets’, ‘September and may be a deliberate reference or an
Song’, and ‘Leavings’ could be fruitfully unconscious influence. There are no other
compared with Sheers’ poems on Wales. obvious links between the two poems but both
use startling imagery to great effect. Heaney’s
42 See for example Twenty Thousand Saints (2008) by Fflur Dafydd at www.literaryatlas.wales
26
tasting of the oysters results in: “My palate These young soldiers are no more in control
hung with starlight:/ As I tasted the salty of their lives in times of war than they are
Pleiades...” a strange entwining of the senses in control of their bodies in the flood.
of touch and taste and images associated The refusal of the army to listen to local
with them. Sheers, meanwhile, describes advice also echoes the way in which large
the wine tasted by the restaurant sommelier areas of rural Wales were requisitioned by
as a boxer’s mouthful of red,” suggesting the Ministry of Defence. The farmers of
blood not alcohol. As noted elsewhere with Epynt were evicted in 1940 to make way for
regards to Sheers’ poems, these unlikely military training. The area is now known
comparisons defamiliarise familiar processes, as the Sennybridge Training Area and
in this case eating and tasting wine, and remains in MOD hands to this day, as do
cause the readers to experience them anew. stretches of Wales’s coastline, particularly
‘Drinking with Hitler’ describes the poet’s Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. Plans
meeting with a Zimbabwean politician and is to create a training area in the Preseli
one of the darkest poems in the collection. mountains during the 1940s were successfully
This politician performs a (false) smile, defeated by a group of nonconformist
beautifully encapsulated in the metaphor pacifists including the poet Waldo Williams.
“a CD selected/ with play pressed across In 1969 a ‘Save our Sands’ campaign led to
his lips.” He appears affable but the poet the Ministry of Defence withdrawing plans
adds: “But I’ve heard about the burned to create a bombing range from Pembrey
workers’ homes…the 5th brigade trucks that to Pendine. Sheers’ poem can be read in
come in the night.” The reality of the man’s the context of this battle for Welsh land (a
cruelty contrasts sharply with the image he recurring theme in Welsh poetry in English
puts on for foreign visitors and women. and Welsh)43 and is an example of how
reading Sheers from a Welsh perspective
War can reveal extra layers in the poems.

‘Happy Accidents’ considers the photos
War: Mametz Wood, Happy taken of the D-Day landings by Robert
Accidents, Liable to Floods Capa. The contents of the photographs
War is a prevalent theme in much of and the conditions Capa worked under are
Sheers’ work (see the biography for details). mentioned and therefore the poem does
It also appears in Heaney’s Fieldwork and give some view of the war “the air turned
should therefore be mentioned briefly. There lead/ and the marines before him dropped
are only three poems in Skirrid Hill that deal into the water.” However, the focus of the
with war: ‘Mametz Wood’, ‘Happy Accidents’ poem is on the photographs and how they
and ‘Liable to Floods’. This last discusses represent the war rather the war itself.
preparations for war, although the flood ‘Mametz Wood’, meanwhile, focuses on
that sweeps the camp away foreshadows the aftermath of a battle fought by Welsh
the soldiers’ likely fate in the war: “as if the regiments during World War I. The image of
weather had finally caught up with their lives farmers turning up the remains of the dead
–/ this being taken at night without any say,/ years later and skilfully evokes the pity of
this being borne, this being swept away.” war and makes a connection between the
43 See Kirsti Bohata, ‘The Battle for the Hills’ in Postcolonialism Revisited: Writing
Wales in English (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2004), pp. 80-103.
27
rural background of many of the soldiers

who died in Mametz. The bones discovered References to
are compared to delicate things – bone,
china, birds’ eggs – showing how fragile and
Literature, Legend
easily lost the soldiers’ lives were. The image and Music
of skeletons linked arm in arm is almost
unbearably sad as is the idea that their Owen Sheers makes several references in
boots “outlasted them.” It is also notable Skirrid Hill, though fewer than Heaney makes
that ‘Mametz Wood’ is the first poem in the in Fieldwork. In the case of both poets these
collection and therefore sets the tone for references are rarely explained. It is not
what is to follow. Therefore, although war necessary to recognise these references in
is a relatively minor theme in Skirrid Hill, order to enjoy the poems but understanding
it is still an important one and Sheers has them can add extra layers of meaning.
drawn attention to the importance of his References to the legend of Skirrid Fawr have
sequencing of the poems in this collection. already been mentioned and it is notable that
Most of Heaney’s war poems are about knowing the legend can alter significantly the
the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ and draw way that the reader interacts with the poems.
on personal experience. He is angered by For a reader who does not know the legend,
the English soldiers on “my roads/ as if poems like ‘Y Gaer’ and ‘The Hill Fort’ are
they owned them,” (‘The Toome Road’) simply about the loss of a child. Once the
and addresses one of the Irishmen killed as legend is added into the equation it leads
“cousin” (‘The Strand at Lough Beg’). Even the reader to wonder whether the father and
the soldier killed in the First World War in son are supposed to be God and Jesus and
‘In Memoriam: Francis Ledwidge’ is a man therefore whether Sheers is doing something
who has relevance to his life, a former lover of theologically radical in depicting them as
his aunt. This gives his writing an immediacy having an ordinary father and son relationship.
that is lacking in Sheers’ work. The Welsh With the exception of the legend of Skirrid
poet writes about wide-scale conflicts that Fawr, Sheers’ preferred method of reference is
happened before he was born (the First using a quotation as an epigraph for a poem.
and Second World Wars) and focuses on These quotations are wide-ranging, from R.
general rather than specific loss of life. S. Thomas through 20th century English poet
War: Triptych I, The Toome Road, Christopher Logue to the American indie
The Strand at Lough Beg, The Badgers, rock band Eels. The first pays homage to
Casualty, Postcard from North Antrim, Thomas, acknowledging the part that poet
In Memoriam: Francis Ledwidge has played in shaping Sheers’ poetry. The
other two are more complex. A quotation
from Christopher Logue’s poem ‘Professor
Tucholsky’s Facts’ begins the poem ‘Flag’. It
lists the organs a man leads to survive: “a liver,
a heart, a brain, and a Flag.” The supposed
importance of a flag – and thus a nationality
– is stressed. However the quotation cannot
be fully appreciated out of context. ‘Professor
Tucholsky’s Facts’ is a satirical poem,
purporting to describe life on earth to aliens.
28
It shows man refusing to think, blaming The lyrics to ‘Susan’s House’

religion for everything and generally behaving can be found here: https://genius.
foolishly. Dependence on a flag is therefore com/Eels-susans-house
shown to be one more foolishness. This
reinforces the failure with which the Welsh
flag depicted in Sheers’ poem is associated. Suggested
A quotation from the Eels’ song ‘Susan’s
House’ begins the poem ‘Under the
Questions and
Superstition Mountains’. Here the quotation Exercises
appears ironic as the neighbourhood in
‘Susan’s House’ appears far rougher and Ask each student to think of a landscape
more dangerous than the sleepy aged feature of any sort: a hill, a field, a forest, a
community that Sheers depicts. However street or road, that they see regularly. Get them
it could also be read as a warning that to think about what they see or sense when
darker things lie beneath the surface, they look at it. How does this feature reflect
particularly when combined with the image the way in which humans have interacted
of the rattlesnake waking at the end. with it over the years? Alternatively, ask them
Some references are less significant. The to pick a landscape feature that is special or
line from The Pardoner’s Prologue in The important to them and get them to explain
Canterbury Tales that begins ‘Hedge School’ why, orally or in any form of writing they like.
appears simply to refer to the subject of Ask students to identify Welsh words or
the following poem. The young poet’s soul phrases in the poems (are there any Irish
has gone “blackberrying” in the sense that words or phrases in Heaney?). What kind of
they are completely absorbed in the activity. words are they? For instance, place names?
Knowing the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale Are they presented differently from the
does not cast a great deal more light on the English-language of the poems in which they
poem. The same is true of the quotation are found? (e.g. in italics?) What is the effect
at the start of ‘L.A. Evening’. The mention of typographical integration/distinction? Are
of Booth and the Player’s Club situates the they translated directly or can you guess
poem firmly in the American acting world the meaning from the context? What is the
(Edwin Booth was a nineteenth-century purpose, function and/or effect of these
actor who founded The Player’s Club in New words? For instance, do they represent
York as a private social club for actors and something other than (or in addition to)
people from the worlds of literature, painting, the specific thing/place/concept to which
sculpture and music). The content of the they ‘literally’ refer? (.e.g. could they be
quotation echoes the theme of the poem. But synecdoches for a wider language/culture?)
knowing the context of the quotation does What other non-English languages appear in
not add much to the reading of the poem. In the collection? How does the use of Welsh
these last two cases, the opening quotations compare with these traces of other cultures?
serve more as a starting point or inspiration (Note: students may not identify place-
for the poem than a comment on them. names as instances of Welsh language but it
An audio version of ‘Professor is worth pausing (and translating) these and
Tucholsky’s Facts’ by Christopher Logue considering the significance of not identifying
is available on YouTube: https://www. place-names as instances of Welsh appearing
youtube.com/watch?v=I1rHhKywcJQ in the otherwise English-language poems.)
29
Ask the students to read ‘Joseph Jones’ and https://www.theguardian.com/

‘On Going’ carefully and think about whether travel/2016/jul/28/black-mountains-
their subjects are the kind of people they wales-walking-myth-folklore
would expect to see portrayed in poems. Why Sheers’ walking tour taking in the view of
or why not? If not, what sort of people would the Black Mountains from Hatterall Ridge
they expect to read about in poems? Then
have them think of a person, alive or dead, that https://surfnslide.wordpress.
they might write a poem about. Have them com/2011/05/27/hatterall-hill/ This
list some of the things they might say in it and blog features pictures of Ysgryd Fawr and
then think about why they might or might Hatterall Ridge and will provide context for
not want to write a poem to remember or talk some of the discussion on landscape above.
about someone. They do not have to write the
poem unless they want to, just think about Merlin Gable, ‘A Monument to the Communal’
the process and the reasons for doing so. https://www.iwa.wales/agenda/2019/01/
a-monument-to-the-communal/ This
Suggested primarily focuses on Sheers’ two film-poems

but gives some useful information about his
Resources career and his views on writing and Wales.
All resources are available online for free.
Owen Sheers’ website provides a lot

of information and useful resources,
including links to reviews and videos
of the author talking about his work.
http://www.owensheers.co.uk/
Sarah Crown, ‘Review of Skirrid

Hill’ in The Guardian https://www.
theguardian.com/books/2006/feb/25/
featuresreviews.guardianreview28
‘An Interview with Owen Sheers’ The

Poetry Archive https://poetryarchive.org/
interviews/interview-owen-sheers/
https://literature.britishcouncil.
org/writer/owen-sheers - Gives
some background information about
Sheers and an analysis of his work.
30

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CREW

GCE AS/A Level

5 Sheers quote in Nicholas Wroe.

6 Owen Sheers, Correspondence with Catriona Coutts in preparation of these materials.

10 John Davies, A History of Wales (London: Penguin, 2007), p. 703.

Welsh Literary is therefore very well aware of writing in a

Landscape Poetry to New York and how Sheers himself tried to

express this: “Poets of the landscape are Border Writer

29 Owen Sheers, ‘Introduction’ in A Poet’s Guide to Britain, ed. by Owen

Literary Influences: R. S. electric poetry of R. S. Thomas to the peaty

deeply interested in the relationship between literature, people and place.

Language and Form

and give a distinct sense of place. They also act

Relationships crucifixion – another instance of parting,

36 Sarah Crown, ‘Review of Skirrid Hill’, The Guardian, 25 February, 2006.

37 Sarah Crown, ‘Review of Skirrid Hill’.

39 Owen Sheers, ‘Introduction’ in A Poet’s Guide to Britain, p. xviii.

and manmade features of landscape.

Country Life is an important influence on Sheers’ writing

Wales and Borders the flag as “a tourniquet, a bandage tight on

with in the section on references below.

War can reveal extra layers in the poems.

rural background of many of the soldiers

It shows man refusing to think, blaming The lyrics to ‘Susan’s House’

Ask the students to read ‘Joseph Jones’ and https://www.theguardian.com/

Suggested primarily focuses on Sheers’ two film-poems

All resources are available online for free.

Owen Sheers’ website provides a lot

Sarah Crown, ‘Review of Skirrid

‘An Interview with Owen Sheers’ The

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