John Davies is a Welsh poet whose first collection, ''The Strangers'', was published in 1974.
He was awarded the
Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize
The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize was awarded by the Poetry Society of London for a collection of poetry. It is named after Alice Hunt Bartlett who was the American editor of the society's ''Poetry Review'' from 1923 to 1949. The prize was establish ...
in 1985.
Early life and career
John Davies was born in 1944 and brought up in
Cymmer,
[ a coal mining village in the Afan Valley, some ten miles north of ]Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...
in south Wales. He was the eldest child of Betty Dymond Davies née Chappell of Cymmer and John Vyrnwy Davies from Penclawdd
Penclawdd ( cy, Pen-clawdd) is a village in the north of the Gower Peninsula in the county of Swansea, Wales. Historically, it was part of Glamorgan. Penclawdd is most famous for its local cockle industry which goes back for many years to Roman ...
, a coal mining and cockling village on the Gower
Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...
peninsula. They were married in St John's Church, Cymmer, in 1942.
Davies writes about Cymmer and his family in the first three poems of his 1985 collection, ''The Visitor's Book'', and again in ''Starting Point'' in his 1991 collection, ''Flight Patterns'', where he writes: "Where you started from didn't stop because you left...You keep on looking back...You were never meant to leave and can't..." Davies also draws upon his uncle Joseph Chappell, a coal miner in Cymmer, in ''The Voice Box'' (in ''The Visitor's Book'') and in ''Farmland'' (in ''Flight Patterns'').
Much of Davies' work has been concerned with roots, language and belonging,[: "His work has been praised for its formal precision and for its marriage of delicate lyricism with intellectual toughness. It is much concerned with 'the tension between rootedness and flight..'"] as Professor Elinor Shaffer
Elinor Shaffer (born 1935) FBA is a professor at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, honorary professor at University College, London, editor of the Comparative Literature series of Legenda (imprint), and editor of ''Reception of ...
has elaborated in her study of literary devolution. Shaffer deals sensitively with what she calls the linguistic divisions within Davies' family, but it's not an issue that Davies shies away from. In his poem, ''The visitor’s book'', we learn that his father's first language was Welsh, but his mother's was English. He also tells us that his wife and daughter speak Welsh, but he does not. But these linguistic fissures ran deeper: Davies' Cymmer grandfather, Gomer Chappell, spoke Welsh, as did two of his brothers, but his third brother, Joseph, did not, though Joseph's wife did.
In 1954, the family moved to steel-making and English-speaking Port Talbot, a town with a rich cultural tradition, including connections with the poets Ruth Bidgood
Ruth Bidgood (née Jones; 20 July 1922 – 4 March 2022) was a Welsh poet and local historian who wrote in English.
Life and career
Ruth Jones was born at Blaendulais, Seven Sisters, near Neath, Wales, on 20 July 1922. Her mother, the former H ...
, Sally Roberts Jones
Sally Roberts Jones (born 30 November 1935) is an English-born Welsh poet, publisher and critic.
Biography
She was born Sally Roberts in London; her father was Welsh. She studied history at University College Bangor, then qualified as a libraria ...
, Moelwyn Merchant
William Moelwyn Merchant (5 June 1913 – 22 April 1997) was an academic, novelist, sculptor, poet and Anglican priest. He was born in Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales, and his first language was Welsh. He was educated at University College, ...
, Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...
, Edward Thomas and Gwyn Williams.
John Davies attended Dyffryn Grammar School in the town. Some of his early poems were published in ''The Wayfarer'', the school magazine. Davies' English master at Dyffryn was R. Selwyn Davies, remembered as a "revered" teacher who “embraced contemporary poetry.”
After Dyffryn, Davies studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth[ He then taught English at ]Prestatyn
Prestatyn is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Historically a part of Flintshire, it is located on the Irish Sea coast, to the east of Rhyl. Prestatyn has a population of 19,085,
History Prehistory
There is evidence that the ...
High School, in north Wales, later becoming an extramural tutor in English.[
Davies has also taught at the ]University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
and Washington State University
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...
, and he was a visiting professor of Poetry at the Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, 1987–88. Three of his collections, ''The Visitor's Book'' (1985), ''Flight Patterns'' (1991) and ''Dirt Roads'' (1997), include his reflections on his time in America.
Davies' visits to America stimulated an interest in carving, and his wood carvings of birds have since been written about and exhibited, leading one reviewer to note that Davies has "the gift of being a wordsmith and a woodworker - two of the intrinsic crafts of the Welsh tradition." And in John Davies’ case, it was also a craft within his own family's tradition: two of his paternal uncles were woodworkers, as is Davies’ brother.
From 1976 to 1980, Davies was the Reviews Editor for the '' Anglo-Welsh Review''.
He was awarded the Oriel Poetry Prize in 1981.
In 1985, Davies was joint winner, with Vikram Seth
Vikram Seth (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has won several awards such as Padma Shri, Sahitya Academy Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crosswor ...
, of the Poetry Society
The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...
's the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize
The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize was awarded by the Poetry Society of London for a collection of poetry. It is named after Alice Hunt Bartlett who was the American editor of the society's ''Poetry Review'' from 1923 to 1949. The prize was establish ...
, awarded for his fifth collection, ''The Visitor's Book'', which has been described as "one of the most considerable books of poetry by any Anglo-Welsh poet in many years."
Poetry collections
John Davies has published eight collections of poetry:
*''The Strangers'', 1974, Swansea: Christopher Davies
*''Spring in a Small Town'', 1979, Mold: Centre for Ed. Tech.
*''At the Edge of Town'', 1981, Llandysul: Gomer
*''The Silence in the Park'', 1982, Bridgend: Poetry Wales Press
*''The Visitor's Book'', 1985, Bridgend: Seren
*''Flight Patterns'', 1991, Bridgend: Seren
*''Dirt Roads'', 1997, Bridgend: Seren
*''North by South: New and Selected Poems'', 2002, Bridgend: Seren
''North by South'' was Davies' last collection. An extended review in the literary journal, ''Acumen'', provides a summary evaluation of his work as a whole: "His voice...is assured, confident in its tones and its focus...Reading the volume you get a strong sense of Davies' control over his poems' formal aspects...Davies' subject matter is wide-ranging and he can turn on the form at will...He is a master craftsman..."
Poetry journals, anthologies and broadcasts
John Davies' work has appeared in literary journals and magazines, including ''Oxford Poetry'', ''Stand'', ''Planet'', ''New Welsh Review,'' ''Literature and Belief'', ''Poetry Wales'', ''Stanza'', ''Outposts Poetry Quarterly'', ''The Anglo-Welsh Review'', ''Cumberland Poetry Review'', ''Lines Review'', ''Tar River Poetry'', ''New Mexico Humanities Review,'' ''North Dakota Quarterly'' and ''The Seattle Review.''
Davies has been published in a number of poetry anthologies.
*Abse, D. ed. (1983) ''Wales in Verse'', London: Secker and Warburg.
*Abse, D. ed. (1997) ''Twentieth Century Anglo-Welsh Poetry'', Bridgend: Seren.
*Curtis, T. ed. (1986) ''Wales: the Imagined Nation, Studies in Cultural and National Identity'', Bridgend: Poetry Wales Press.
*Ellis, A. T. ed. (1989) ''Wales: An Anthology'', London: Collins
*Garlick, R. and Mathias, R. eds. (1984) ''Anglo-Welsh Poetry 1480-1980'', Bridgend: Poetry Wales Press
*Lloyd, D. ed. (1994) ''The Urgency of Identity: Contemporary English-language Poetry from Wales'', Evanston: Northwestern University.
*Stephens, M. ed. (1987) ''A Book of Wales'', London: J.M. Dent
*Stephens, M. ed. (1991) ''The Bright Field'', Manchester: Carcanet
Davies has also read his poems on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio 4 and on BBC Television.[
]The British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
holds five recordings of Davies reading his poetry, including one reading at the Anglo-Welsh Poetry Festival in 1983.
Edited anthologies
John Davies has edited four anthologies:[All four are listed in the catalogue of the National Library of Wales a]
National Library of Wales
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*''Here in North Wales'', Mold: Centre for Ed. Tech., 1982 (with John Pook)
*''The Valleys,'' Bridgend: Poetry Wales Press, 1984 (with Mike Jenkins)
*''The Streets and the Stars: An Anthology of Writing from Wales,'' Bridgend: Seren, 1995 (with Melvyn Jones)
*''The Green Bridge: Stories from Wales'', Bridgend: Seren, 2019
Essays on the work of John Davies
*Hooker, J. (1987) ''The Presence of the Past: Essays on Modern British and American Poetry'', Bridgend: Poetry Wales Press
*Poole, R. (1988) ''Two Kinds of Poetic Thought: Robert Minhinnick and John Davies'' in ''Anglo-Welsh Review'' no. 88, Aberystwyth: AWR
*Poole, R. (1995) ''The Poetry of John Davies'' in ''Poetry Wales,'' no. 1, Bridgend: Poetry Wales
*Roberts, D. (1993/94) ''The Poet as Woodcarver: The Bird Carvings of John Davies'' in ''Planet'', 102, December, Aberystwyth: Planet
*Smith, P. (1989) ''Isolation, identification, space: some themes on the poems of John Davies'' in ''Poetry Wales'' no. 4, Bridgend: Poetry Wales
*Smith, C. J. P. (May 2003) ''Pebbles and Poems: John Davies'' in ''Acumen Literary Journal'', no.46, Brixham: Acumen Publications
*Thomas, A. (1991)''The Poetry of John Davies: Wales and America'' in ''New Welsh Review'', no.12, Cardiff: NWR.
*Williams, N. (2003) ''John Davies: The Geography of Life Round Here'' in ''Poetry Wales,'' no. 4. Spring, Bridgend: Poetry Wales
References
Bibliography
*Ballin, M. (2013) ''Welsh Periodicals in English 1882-2012'', Cardiff: University of Wales Press
*Burton, P.H. (1969) ''Early Doors: My Life and the Theatre'', New York: The Dial Press
*Burton, R. (2012 ) ''The Richard Burton Diaries'', London: Yale University Press
*Corcoran, N. ed. (2007) ''The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century English Poetry'' London: Cambridge University Press
*James, B. Ll. (1993) ''The Ancestry of Edward Thomas'' in the ''National Library of Wales Journal'', vol 28, no 1 pp81–93
*John, A.V. (2015) ''The Actors' Crucible: Port Talbot and the Making of Burton, Hopkins, Sheen and all the Others'', Cardigan: Parthian
*Jones, S. R. (2009) ''The Literary Tradition of the Neath and Afan Valleys and Tir Iarll (Maesteg and Porthcawl)'', (M.Phil.), University of Swansea
*Rees, L. (2013) ''The Real Port Talbot'', Bridgend: Seren
*Shaffer, E. S. (1998) ''Comparative Criticism: Literary Devolution: Writing in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England'', vol 19, London: Cambridge University Press
*Stephens, M. ed. (1986) ''The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales'', Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Stephens, M. ed. (1998) ''The New Companion to the Literature of Wales'', Cardiff: University of Wales Press
*Stephens, M. ed. (2007) ''Poetry 1900-2000'', Cardigan: Parthian Books
External links
Port Talbot Historical Society
Port Talbot and Poetry
The Literary Tradition of the Neath and Afan Valleys
Discovering Dyffryn: Grace's Blog
Dyffryn Grammar School Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, John
1944 births
People from Port Talbot
20th-century Welsh poets
21st-century Welsh poets
Living people