Senior clergy in the Church of Wales have paid tribute to the poet RS Thomas whose funeral took place on Friday.

A private service was held at Pentrefelin Church on the Llyn Peninsula for Mr Thomas. who was a vicar in the Church of Wales between 1936 and his retirement in 1978.

Ronald Stuart Thomas, who died on Monday at the age of 87, was an Anglican priest who wrote more than 1,500 poems over half a century.

In 1964 he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

He was widely regarded as the best religious poet of his time although his verse covered a wide range of themes.

Born in Cardiff to non-Welsh speaking parents, he grew up in Liverpool and Holyhead.

Outspoken campaigner

His grand passion was the Welsh language, even though he did not learn it himself until he was 30, and he wrote most of his poems in English.

He was an outspoken campaigner on political issues.

Thomas considered himself to be a patriot rather than a fervent nationalist but he publicly praised the arsonists who firebombed English-owned properties in Wales.

He believed that English speakers were ruining Welsh culture and called for "non-violent night attacks" against English-owned properties in Welsh speaking areas.

In his poem Welsh Landscape he wrote: "There is no present in Wales and no future, there is only the past. Brittle with relics, wind-bitten towers and castles with sham ghosts."