Vernon Watkins

Vernon Watkins (June 27, 1906 — October 8, 1967), was a Welsh poet, commonly known for his friendship with his fellow Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, and considered to be both a great but somewhat underexposed writer of his age. Throughout his lifetime he published 8 volumes of poetry in addition to another which was released after his death, and his optimistic, lyrical writing style named him worthy of praise from peers and fame within his genre of poetry as a Welshman. Contrarily he spent much of his life working at a banking job accredited to him by his father, working on poetry all the while, but despite such minimal distraction, Watkins' ambitions acquired him a spot among some of the most remarkable poetic figures of the 1900's—especially seeing to it that he, unlike many of his time, found it not only possible but rather unavoidable to effectively and eloquently describe life in an embracing manner which brought out the best of his poetic abilities. It wasn't until Watkins' later life, however, that he truly began to receive his share of recognition, and he died having been awarded with a few major poetry prizes as well as being considered for poet laureate.

Life

Early Life and Breakdown

Vernon was born in the Welsh town, Maesteg, Glamorgan, and raised in that same county, which would remain to be his preferred area of residence for much of his life. His parents were William and Sarah Watkins, and they raised Vernon as well as his two sisters, Marjorie and Dorothy in a Welsh cultural context as that was the background that the couple had come from. Their home was located in Redcliffe, Caswell Bay, which was a few miles from one of the county's largest cites, Swansea. For his earlier years, Vernon was educated at a preparatory school in Sussex and later at Repton School in Derbyshire which would account for his primary schooling. He then attended Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1924 to 1925 where he studied modern languages, leaving before having acquired a degree as that time was the start of a troubled period in his life. He was said to have been unable to manage a self-sufficiency as a university student and at the time was still somewhat immature in that regard. Ensuingly, he took a job under his father, who was the manager of Lloyds Bank. His family had urged him to do so, as they were concerned with his well-being while at college, and they felt that the job might serve as a better environment for him. Around that time, Vernon suffered a nervous breakdown, as day-to-day distress grew to be all too overwhelming for his particular character to take on, and his delusional state came to a climax when a motorcyclist crashed in his front yard—an occurrence he observed to be his fault and in accordance with his will for it to come about. Following the event, Watkins was placed in a home where he would spend the next few months under restraint.

Developing Career

After Watkins' recovery, he started work again at Lloyds Bank in Cardiff and would remain there, with little responsibility, for much of his life. He used the job for a steady basis of income while focusing on his poetry on the side, and throughout his career there, he continually dismissed the several promotions offered to him as his first priority and concern was with having enough time to work on his poems—such promotions being seen as possible interferences.

He wrote some 1000 poems prior to publishing his first volume in 1941, The Ballad of the Mari Lwyd and Other Poems and continued to publish his works, primarily under Faber & Faber, for the remainder of his life. His work as a poet was continually seen to be his first preference throughout his days, and he was constantly revising his poems, both new and unpublished works as well as the previously published ones. As he was such a recursive writer, he would spend several hours on a single work and would then put out collections for the public every few years. Particularly, his style became such as to be noticeable by many of his poetic peers of the time, however, his general audience was never to become all that impressive.

Marriage and Later Life

Watkins married in 1944 to the woman who was to be his wife for the rest of his life, Gwen Watkins, and together the couple had five children: Rhiannon Mary, Gareth Vernon, William Tristran David, Dylan Valentine, and Conrad Meredith. As Vernon was apt to stay in his beloved home area around Glamorgon, their family was raised there, and Watkins continued with his career as it was—still not necessarily recognized by the masses but all the more praised by his colleagues. Continuing with his accumulation of volumes, Vernon also translated European verse into English and eventually came to grow out of his under-appreciated state as a poet with time, being awarded with a few poetry prizes including the Levinson prize in 1953 and the Guinness Poetry Prize in 1957. He was also a visiting professor of poetry at the University of Washington in 1963 and 1967, and he died while consideration for selecting him as poet laureate was pending. He suffered a fatal heart attack on October 8, 1967, actually while in Seattle as a visiting professor of poetry, after playing a game of tennis (which was said to be one of Vernon's preferred hobbies). Afterwards another volume of poetry of his was published, making a total of 9 volumes in addition to the other works he did including those poetry translations of others' into English, literary essays, and correspondences with various writers.

Friendship Among Poets

Throughout Watkins' pursuit of poetry, he began to develop several relationships with his poetic peers of the time—some of the most significant including William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Philip Larkin, Kathleen Raine, and Dylan Thomas. The latter was specifically one of interest as the two were in consistent consultation of each other's poetry and both held the other in high regard (at least in terms of each other's poetic abilities). They came together, both as poets drawing from their Welsh backgrounds in their writings, and mutually found a consensus through which they would meet together and cooperatively discuss new works. Though conflict did arise from time to time, both in the sense that their poetic views slightly differed and in the sense that Thomas' tendency was to vacillate in his desire to associate with Watkins, their relationship was one notable enough to have been written and published about on two accounts. Thomas had written "Letters to Vernon Watkins," which was published by J. M. Dent & Sons of London in 1957, and later Vernon's wife had "Portrait of a Friend" published by Gomer Press—both of which were important descriptions of the arduous relationship between Watkins and Thomas. In whole, the friendship could possibly be best portrayed in that, though Thomas considered Vernon to be "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English," Thomas had been nominated to be Watkins' best man at his wedding yet abandoned his attendance to the duty.

Poetry

Although Watkins' poetry was to remain relatively unpopular through the majority of his lifetime, his particular and unique style named him easily praiseworthy by those peers who knew him, and especially notable in his commencing of Welsh legends as inspiration. His works were primarily composed using lyrical images written directed toward themes portraying paradoxical truths about life and its simple benevolences—a sharp contrast to many of his fellow writers whose poems were essentially the opposite, investigating and emphasizing life's pessimistic qualities. Quite possibly, Vernon Watkins was discerned between the rest of the poets of his time in that he had a deep love for poetry and was truly moved by the beauty experienced in different combinations of words—even to the extent of tears, as he mentioned when delving into his passion for the art. Ensuingly so, it's not surprising that his ecstatic acceptance of poetry extended out into the way he viewed the world. His poems were his earnest attempt to instigate hesitation in those who viewed life and death as subtleties, and the musical and rhythmic nature of his writing made to bring out a genuinity of emotion when attempting—and debatably succeeding at—describing life in a truly embracing way that others could relate to. Throughout all of his poems, he ambitiously utilized his talent for composing words, lyrically producing images which were geared towards reflecting the natural and original content in what made the world such a phenomenal place in his perspective. In such a way, his poetry was able to entice many of those poets who came to adore Vernon's poetic ability. One of Watkins' colleagues, Kathleen Raine, quoted him to be "the greatest lyric poet of [her] generation," and Philip Larkin wrote:

"In Vernon's presence poetry seemed like a living stream, in which one had only to dip the vessel of one's devotion. He made it clear how one could, in fact, 'live by poetry'; it was a vocation, at once difficult as sainthood and easy as breathing."

Here, where the earth is green, where heaven is true Opening the windows touched with earliest dawn, In the first frost of cool September days, Chrysanthemum weather, presaging great birth, Who in his heart could murmur or complain; 'The light we look for is not in this land?' That light is present, and that distant time Is always here, continually redeemed. Watkins, From Peace in the Welsh Hills

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Evans, Philip. A History of the Thomas Family, Privately published, 1994
• Fitzgibbon, Constantine. 1965. The Life of Dylan Thomas, Boston. Readers Union. OCLC 367245
• Watkins, Vernon. The Anglo-Welsh review. 1958. Pembroke Dock: Dock Leaves Press.
• Stanford, Donald E. 1983. British poets, 1914-1945. Dictionary of literary biography, v. 20. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co. ISBN 0810317028

External links

• Janes, Alfred, Portrait of Vernon Watkins, Swansea Heritage, Accessed March 16, 2007
• Webster, Loren, The Real Job, Lorenwebster, Accessed March 16, 2007

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