About Vernon Watkins
Vernon Phillips Watkins (27 June 1906 – 8 October 1967) was a Welsh poet and translator. He was a close friend of fellow poet Dylan Thomas, who described him as "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English". == Early life and studies == Vernon Watkins was born in Maesteg in Glamorgan, and brought up mainly in Swansea. His birth coincided with slight earth tremors; another baby born that night was christened John Earthquake Jones. His parents were William Watkins, a manager for Lloyds Bank in Wind Street, Swansea, and Sarah ("Sally"), daughter of James Phillips and Esther Thomas of Sarnau, Meidrim. James Phillips was a Congregationalist, reputed to know most of the Welsh Bible by heart. Sarah had a love of poetry and literature; her headmistress arranged for her to spend two years as a pupil-teacher in Germany. William Watkins and Sarah Phillips married in 1902, and had three children, Vernon, Marjorie, and Dorothy. The family lived at "Redclliffe", a large Victorian house about 4 miles (6.4 km) from Swansea, at Caswell Bay. Watkins read fluently by the age of four, and at five announced that he would be a poet, although he did not wish to be published until after his death.
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