clergyman and poet, considered the only successful practitioner of the long Welsh poem in the 19th century. His major work is the uncompleted philosophical poem Y Storm (1856; The Storm).

Originally a land surveyor, Thomas was ordained in the Calvinistic Methodist ministry in 1859. From his youth he wrote poetry in Welsh, under the bardic name Islwyn. A master of strict Welsh metres, he was also highly accomplished at blank verse; he published a considerable body of work, largely characterized by a mystical and melancholy tone. Although he was relatively unknown in his time, some of his work later was judged to be among the finest 19th-century Welsh poetry.