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2024 marks 80 years since the death of the Welsh poet Alun Lewis. Regarded as Britain’s finest Second World War Poet, his brief life left a legacy work that captured the solitude and desolation of war, his Welsh identity and his experiences of love with maturity. The cause of his death while serving in Burma is still unclear to this day.

Casi Wyn traces Lewis’ literary evolution from his youth growing up by the South Wales Coalfields, his admiration of Edward Thomas and the experience of being a pacifist soldier. His contributions to literature, even in such a short time, extend to poetry, letters and short story collections published including Raiders’ Dawn and Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets.

Casi Wyn is a Welsh singer and composer who held the role of Wales’ Youth Poet Laureate for two years. Her works have been performed by the Â鶹ԼÅÄ National Orchestra of Wales and most recently Sinfonia Cymru.

Thanks to David and Jane Ellis, Mick Felton, John Pikoulis, Gwyneth Lewis, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Torsten Rasch, Cary Archard, Roy Noble, Seren Press, National Library of Wales, Zoe Brigley and Poetry Wales, Rhondda Cynon Taf Libraries Digital Service and their archive, Cynon Valley Museum, George Hay and The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, The National Archives, Julia Forster and Simon Thirsk.

Alun Lewis Collected Poems, edited by Cary Archard and published by Seren Press was the reference publication for this project.

Diolch Alun.

Image Credit: Dan Peterson. The cover image is a black and white sketch of Alun Lewis

Presenter: Casi Wyn
Producer: Mollie Davidson
Executive Producer: Richard Power

A 7digital Creative Production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Wales.