I think it's precisely because of this freedom from needing to decide what they really think, to reach a conclusive and coherent position, that lyric poets can sometimes transcend their own mind-sets, say things that arrive with the force of insight to readers fifty years later. Puff, little engine, to the valleys at daybreak, To northward and westward with a voice in the dawn, And shout to the people that prosperity's coming, And that coal can be changed into ingots of gold, And that Cardiff shall be famous when the sun goes down. This is an example of the poetry in Gwalia Deserta that I like best of all. The lines are free verse, but if you read with your ears, they are full of little scraps of song. And it looks like a description, but that's only a surface.
Lyric poetry is always in some sense about love, because love is at the base of every emotion.
But love does not have to take place in rose-gardens or on beaches. Here, finally, are two love-poems, one about the sun and one about football. I hope you'll agree that Idris Davies doesn't betray the truth of his vision. On the contrary, it is love that makes it complex and morally troubling. Love is a way of seeing.