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 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 distraction, Watkins' ambitions acquired him a spot among some of the most influential poetic figures of the 1900's. 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
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, coming to the conclusion that he could control time and destiny after observing a motorcyclist crash in his front yard, claiming it to have been due to his own accord.
Career and Later Life
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 intereferences. He wrote some 1000 poems prior to publishing his first volume 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.
Throughout his pursuit of poetry, Vernon 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 each held the other in high regard. Later when Vernon met his future wife, Gwen, the two were married in 1944 with Dylan Thomas even being nominated by Watkins for best man (a position that Thomas actually abandoned and didn't attend to). The couple had five children: Rhiannon Mary, Gareth Vernon, William Tristran David, Dylan Valentine, and Conrad Meredith.
As Watkins aged, he finally began to come out of his state as an under-appreciated poet, having written 8 published volumes of poetry, and was recognized 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 heart attack on October 8, 1967, which was the cause of his death, after playing a game of tennis. Afterwards another volume of poetry of his was published, making a total of 9 volumes to comprise the portrayal of his poetic brilliance.
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. One of Watkins' colleagues, Kathleen Raine, quoted him to be "the greatest lyric poet of [her] generation," and Dylan Thomas named him "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English." Thomas, actually being very close to Vernon in terms of poetic consultation as well as friendship, was profoundly influenced by Watkins' writing and by his opinions of Thomas' own style. Some other associations of which Vernon had included a short-lived inclusion in a group known as the New Apocalyptics group and another among the Kardomah boys.
|
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Evans, Philip, A History of the Thomas family, Privately published, 1994
- Fitzgibbon, Constantine, The Life of Dylan Thomas, Boston, Readers Union, 1965, OCLC 367245
- Watkins, Vernon, The Anglo-Welsh Review, Unpublished
External links
- Janes, Alfred, Portrait of Vernon Watkins, Swansea Heritage, Accessed March 16, 2007
- Webster, Loren, The Real Job, Lorenwebster, Accessed March 16, 2007
cy:Vernon Watkins
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
