Regarded today as one of the classics of twentieth-century Anglophone Welsh poetry,

is a vital component of the literary heritage of industrialised Wales. Many see it also as the crowning achievement in the literary career of Idris Davies (1905-1953), who considered the work his “magnum opus” (Jones 2001, p. 154). Subtitled “A Poem of 1926”,

is a substantial, book-length text; it comprises fifty short verse-fragments written in a range of styles and metres. Its chief subject is the miners’ strike that took place in the south Wales valleys in that year – an event of deep significance to coalfield culture and folklore.

The textual history of The Angry Summer begins in January 1940, when Davies was living as a metropolitan evacuee in the village

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Citation: Jones, Alan Vaughan. "The Angry Summer: a poem of 1926". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 December 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=32344, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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