Born in 1937 in the cold, dark, wet, craggy hardscrabble Welsh landscape that provides the physical and emotional topography of much of her languorous lyrical poetry, Gillian Clarke is a teacher, lecturer, editor and one of the most popular poets of her generation. Published in 1978, The Sundial, introduced voice strongly influenced by her surroundings with verse reflecting the strange beauty and isolation everywhere around her.
The qualities of bleakness and alienation associated with life in Wales becomes less internalized and personalized throughout her career as her verse becomes more politicized and explores the rocky relationship between her homeland and the British government and its policies. She would also look backward to myth, legend and folklore to explore Welsh identity and culture in The King of Britain’s Daughter while in "Cofiant" she considers the impact of history through the specific lens of her own ancestry. This expansion will continue into her much later work that touches upon subjects as far-ranging as the war in Bosnia to a memorial on the death of Nelson Mandela.
Clarke became on the third person to be named the National Poet of Wales and in 2010 was the second Welsh poet to receive the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
Poetry Collections by Gillian Clarke:
The Sundial. 1978.
Letter from a Far Country. 1982.
Selected Poems. 1985.
Letting in the Rumour. 1989.
The King of Britain's Daughter. 1993.
Collected Poems. 1997.
Five Fields. 1998.
The Animal Wall: And Other Poems. 1999.
Nine Green Gardens. 2000
Owain Glyn Dwr. 2000
Making Beds for the Dead. 2004
At the Source. 2008.
A Recipe for Water. 2009
