pwa wrote:If RS Thomas was regretting the farmer's joy in his tractor, I think he was missing something. I took my Dad (aged 80+ and eyesight starting to fail) to the Museum of Welsh Life, where he was delighted to find an ancient Massey Ferguson tractor that was like those he used in his youth on a farm in Ireland. He remembered with fondness the wonderful impact that machine had on the lives of farm workers, letting them get their work done with less stress. If he could have hugged that thing he would have done. Perhaps RS Thomas, being a soft handed clergyman, did not understand what it is like to do manual work for a living.
A poem can convey aspects which contrast, or even contradict, at the same time.
He surely celebrates Cynddylan's liberation from the yoke, and his pride in his new tractor, but also sees something to regret in his being less close to the realities of nature, sunshine and birdsong.