A Peasant was written in 1942 by Ronald Stuart Thomas, where Iago Prytherch is presented as an epitome of people of Wales, and contrasted with the landscapes of Wales and the harshness of rural life. This character comes frequently in his poetry as the prototype of the Welsh hill uplands.
“I’m obviously not orthodox, I don’t know how many real poets have ever been orthodox.” ~ R. S. Thomas.” ― Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2000)
The poems commences with the name of a peasant. His name is Iago Prytherch. He is just an ordinary man of the bald (bare) Welsh hills. He pens a few sheep to protect them from the storm and rain (cloud). He works on the farm and cuts short the Mangels (a variety of beet). He chips the green. There is a half-witted smile and satisfaction in him. He works with the earth that gives flashes of light in the wind. His days are now spent. He has grown old by doing such simple things. The mirth in him is rarer than the sun that breaks the cheeks of the bare sky at least once in a week. This shows that the old man is disappointed and has very rare moments of mirth and laughter. The peasant, now, at night fixes himself in his chair and remains motionless except when he moves toward the fireplace. He is old and forgetful. His mind is vacant, and something frightening passes through his mind. Possibly the old man is haunted by the past and the future. The old man’s clothes are dirty. There is sour with years of sweat and animal contact. Such sweaty clothes shock the so-called refined men of the towns/cities. But even such people are affected by the stark naturalness of the peasant. The old man, however, is the prototype of the whole peasants’ world. He faces the siege of rain and wind’s attrition and preserves his stock, his tradition and natural rhythm of living. He stands like “an impregnable fortress”. He is metaphorically the preserver of his peasantry. He is a symbol of victory — a fortress not to be damaged by the storms. Death comes and takes him away, but the endurance and the imprint of the peasant remain forever. The last two lines are the closing couplets. The speaker reminds us all that the peasant is the “winner of wars”. His devotion and sacrifice are enduring. His image stands “like a tree under the curious stars”. So long as the trees, stars and other life-forces exist in the world, the peasant’s work will be remembered.
The poem has fine touches of natural, realistic details. The poet makes the peasant a symbol of the immortal life-force on earth, a source of inspiration (prototype) for the future generations. His death shall not wipe away his sacrifice and devotion. The poem is musical and has rhymes. It uses similes and metaphors and gives us the vivid picture of the ageing peasant. Like the speaker of the poem, we reflect upon the whole round of life and its meaning.
There is a shift in the tone of the poem when the poem moves from Iago to ‘your prototype’. The farmer Iago is not only presented as the peasant of the Welsh hills, but as the symbol of the all rustic workforces. These men continue to work despite all the harshness of life and seasons and nature. For the survival and the production, they never say day, night, scorching sun or the chilling winter. They have to be remembered and respected for their constant fight with the nature and especially for their victory.
Critical Analysis
The poem A Peasant is a laudatory (praising description of a simple farmer; the poem also ends by claiming that the old man is a hero of all times. The speaker of the poem is in an indefinite situation by simply thinking about a simple peasant (farmer) named Iago Prytherch from the bald hills of Wales in Britain.
His meditation that follows the description of the old peasant ends with a claim that the simple tanner is also a hero, the winner of many wars, perhaps the wars of the hardships of life. This is also most likely a satiric comment of the so-called heroes of actual wars who kill others and are wrongly called great and glorious.
The outward situation of the persona is constant, and only the ideas develop from the statement or name to a direct address to us and a reminder that the man is a hero, a prototype who has resisted the seize of many seasons. With unusual wording that suggests implicit meanings as well explicit descriptions, the persona makes a number of appreciative remarks about Iago Prytherch. In the first seven lines, the speaker gives a brief description of how Iago spends his days. In the next five lines, we are told something about how he spends his lonely nights. In four more lines that follow, the speaker comments on the peasant’s mind, his clothes, and his natural but shockingly dirty appearance. Then, in the last six lines, the speaker gives his final comments about the heroism of the farmer as a “prototype” (supreme model/ best example) of a hero in true human life.
After once reading the poem carefully, we understand that the poet’s intention is to prove the simple farmer as the true hero of all times, since they preserve and support the life of others, unlike the so-called “heroes” of war who are nothing but monsters called great men for killing others. The poem is therefore a praise of the simple human prototype as well as a satire on the brutality of war -heroes. The speaker also seems to be describing his hero in response to someone who is telling him (or has told him) about the greatness of war-heroes.
The basic technique of conveying the ideas and making the impressions that the poet intends is the use of striking descriptions and claims. He also uses direct address to the reader and advises them why they should regard the simple a great hero of all times. The humble way in which he introduces his character suggests that he is initially hesitant to call him a hero; in fact, he seems to be talking to a person who will not understand or accept such an unusual idea. He starts hesitantly, as the lack of a finite verb in the first sentence suggests: Iago Prytherch his name, though, be it allowed, just an ordinary man of the bald Welsh hills, who pens a few sheep in a gap of cloud”. The sentence extends to three lines and we expect that something will be claimed before the syntax ends, but nothing is claimed with confidence or certainty. The sentence is also punctuated and broken in several places, giving it a tone of hesitation. This is to be contrasted with the confident and strong claims along with strong address and advice, at the end of the poem.
The second sentence, along with a dash that marks a turning point in the tone of the poem, describes how the farmer spends his day. These details are simple, but they are typical of the life Welsh villagers. This part creates a picture of life so different from our own, and so it is difficult to understand exactly. ‘Chipping the green skin from the yellow hones’ most probably means the act of taking out the fibrous bark of a tree for making rope. “Churning the crude earth into a sea of glinting (shining) clods” literally means “ploughing thoroughly” and suggests the arduous work of the farmer. The different activities of the farmer show that he is doing so many things without rest. In short, the farmer is extremely hard-working and busy, but he is seen rather ” unhappy, because the speaker says that his “mirth” meaning happiness or merriment is rarer than the sun that cracks the cheek of the sky once a week. At night, he sits alone near the fire and spits into it; he is seen sitting still and with a “vacant” mind that even looks “frightening”. This means that the farmer has no time to think about anything during the day, but is worried by certain things at night. Most probably, he is mourning his lost family — for we see him alone and unhappy — or he is worried about some kind of problem in the world. As we can infer from the end of the poem, he is probably worried about the violence and destruction brought about by wars. His heroism lies in his perseverance and faith in the ordinary pursuit of life and support of the society by producing the basic necessity of life, rather in the killing of men in the name of keeping the so-called order in the society.
The choice of words becomes even more striking towards the end of the poem. The speaker begins to use more and more simple and explicit words, confidently praising Iago as a hero. Before moving into his final claim, however, he mentions the simplicity and stark naturalness of the old man: “His clothes, sour with years of sweat/ And animal contact, (will) shock the refined (city people), / But (who are) affected (snobbish and artificial), with his sense of stark naturalness”. The poet now puts the old ‘dirty’ natural man upon the plane of evaluation. Though the speaker unhesitatingly suggests that Iago has not washed his clothes ‘for years’, he now suggests that the old man is ‘natural’, and that the refined are “affected”. The word ‘refined’ indicates the advanced people of the city, and the word ‘affected’, which refers to the same people, means that they are snobbish and artificial. This part of the poem brings out another issue, the issue of the depreciation of the artificial people in contrast to the ‘natural’ man represented by Iago Prytherch.
The last part of the poem is clown to earth: in the last six lines the Speaker is simple, direct and explicit In, his ideas and expression. He starts with the emphatic word of contrast “Yet” and claims that ‘this’ Iago is “your” prototype. He means that Iago is the real role model, the perfect example for ‘us’. Why? He is a ‘prototype’ for us because he has “preserved his stock” (sheep) from the attack of the rain and wind’s attrition (weakening effect), season after season. He has been an “impregnable fortress” or an army construction that is impossible to enter or conquer! Not only the seasons, even death itself has not been able to ‘storm’ or confuse the strong and persevering old man. This means that he is also tolerated and fought against the impact of death: perhaps his family and relatives have died. But the old man is a hero precisely for preserving life and persevering in favor of life, rather than taking others’ lives like the demoniac murderers called warriors and soldiers serving some wicked kings or gangs. After conveying this much of impressive ideas about the heroism of a unique and true kind, the poet is now able to directly talk to us and tell us to “Remember him, then, for he, too, is a winner of wars”. The pauses at the end of the poem are emphatic and rhetorical, rather than the pauses marking hesitating in the beginning.
The logical structure of the poem, as has been indicated in the previous paragraphs, is mainly of striking descriptions followed by direct claims about the ‘heroism’ of the main character. The poem is indeed a character sketch that ends with a proposal to accept the farmer as the actual hero of life. Thematically, the farmer as the preserver and provider of life is the true hero who champions life, instead of scattering death, in whatever name.
The poem is also striking for its rhythm that becomes more and more regular as it approaches the end. The harshness of the farmer’s life is reinforced by the serious tone, broken and heavy-sounding rhythms, and the irregular rhymes in the poem. The poem is remarkable for the vivid imagery of the old peasant that it creates: it brings to our minds the many poor but great heroes who supply for the sustenance of our lives with their blood and sweat in their farms, rather the other types of so-called heroes who threaten us with their guns. This is a poem that touches me for the really great philosophy about ‘who’ are the real heroes!
Literary Analysis
At the first glance of the poem, we can see that it is merely a characterization of a peasant. Name, place, works, and experiences of the man have been given in details in prosaic style. The peasant is lago Prytherch, most probably a Russian folk, but, he has been compared with an ordinary man of the barren Welsh hills.
………………be it allowed,
Just an ordinary man of the bold Welsh hills.
The poet says much about the poor condition of the man by the remark – ‘….his spittled mirth/Rarer than the sun that cracks the cheeks/Of the gaunt sky perhaps once in a week.’ His happy face is bright once in a week. The harsh words spittled’, ‘cracks’, ‘cheeks’, and ‘gaunt’ produce the sound that demands readers’ sympathy towards him. Healthy checks are cracked like a thick cloud in the sky clacked the sun.
His days pass in farmlands taming the cattle and tending the land. He pens a few sheep in open land. He brings cattle food. He brings, leaves breaking (chipping) from branches of trees. He is satisfied with his works. He also digs and plows the earth, changing the soil to the sea level. Even the plowed soil shines in the surrounding atmosphere. His works are blessings and satisfaction is a pleasure. Rest is at night in his chair, motionlessly sitting by the fire. Cracked cheeks, spitting in the fire, clothes battered with years of sweat, a winner of wars and enduring like a tree under the curious stars; all these give us meaning that the man is certainly an old man. Therefore, there is something frightening in the vacancy of his mind.
A series of events of past moments are moving in his mind. There may be lamentation over lost moments and fear of the future. His sense has been relined and affected with desolate naturalness. Until now, the poet has dealt about the life of the peasant, but suddenly he changes his voice and makes commentary on everybody’s life. That is to say, the poet moves from the particular to the general, saying that the man is typical example or model of every person, who has experienced several seasons of life, but still preserved his stock of cattle and kept his living place stronger like a fortress. He is strong in confidence and enduring all kinds of storms of life.
Thus, the development of the poem is merely a detailed characterization of the old man. Like an essayist, the speaker is acting here as a commentator. There is a traditional philosophy of an old man, who is also a peasant. However, the poem doesn’t contain many poetic qualities. There are rhymes that we find in the end of the lines. The rhymes are alternatively given here. Words have been compacted and the syllables vary in the lines. Different pauses by commas break the lines and give sometimes rhythmic effect.
