The Houses Stand Empty at Nant-yr-Eira

"The Houses Stand Empty at Nant-yr-Eira"

Watercolour - Signed and dated 1996

Image size: 8.25ins x 8ins - Framed: 17ins x 16.5ins

Suggested Offer: £1,625

Exhibited at Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
169th Annual Exhibition October 1996.

Inspired by the poem “The Welsh Hill Country” by R. S. Thomas.

Too far for you to see
The fluke and the foot-rot and the fat maggot
Gnawing the skin from the small bones,
The sheep are grazing at Bwlch-y-Fedwen,
Arranged romantically in the usual manner
On a bleak background of bald stone.

Too far for you to see
The moss and the mould on the cold chimneys,
The nettles growing through the cracked doors,
The houses stand empty at Nant-yr-Eira,
There are holes in the roofs that are thatched with sunlight,
And the fields are reverting to the bare moor.

Too far, too far to see
The set of his eyes and the slow phthisis
Wasting his frame under the ripped coat,
There's a man still farming at Ty'n-y-Fawnog,
Contributing grimly to the accepted patters,
The embryo music dead in his throat.