Reconsidering a Modern Welsh Cultural Identity through Welsh Poetic Forms and Metre Conference Paper: NAASWCH. 25.07.2018. Bangor University. Today I would like to discuss how a contemporary Welsh cultural identity could be reconsidered through Welsh poetic forms and metre and why this important to modern Wales. I want to begin by posing a question: what does it mean to be Welsh right now? The twentieth century has been turbulent for many individuals and ethnicities with official statistics reporting an increase in racially motivated crime. This has taken place since the start of the EU Referendum campaign in England and Wales in 2016, as documented on statistics through GOV.UK1. In a multicultural and diverse society, a Welsh individual is difficult to define through physical characteristics but many are being ostracized from their Welsh communities because of this prejudice. This has led to those individuals feeling isolated, displaced and disengaged with their Welsh cultural identity and heritage. A Welsh cultural identity is more than just a simple matter of being born in Wales. It is possible to live in Wales or be affect by Wales while living outside of its borders to claim a Welsh cultural identity. For example, Patagonia, Argentina and the settlers of the Mimosa in 1865. A combination of Spanish and Welsh, named Patagonian Welsh, is still spoken in parts of Argentina2 and Welsh traditions are still widely practised there. A Welsh identity could represent someone who has been born to Welsh parents; someone who was born in Wales to parents with cultural identities outside of Wales or parents do not identify as Welsh; a refugee recently settled in Wales; or, a British family who want to make Wales their home. I am not trying to distinguish what defines a Welsh cultural identity but to emphasise the diversity of a Welsh cultural identity in modern Wales. Yet, despite this diversity, there is currently a new generation of Welsh voices who are struggling to feel a sense of belonging to Wales. This is expressed in the following quote by Charlotte Williams in her novel, Sugar and Slate: “Poor old mixed-up Wales, somehow as mixed up as I was […] I love its contours and its contradictions. There is the north, ‘Welsh Wales’ they call it, and a very different south, connected only in name…The Welsh and the English, the Welsh-speaking and the Englishspeaking, the proper Welsh and the not so proper Welsh, the insiders and the outsiders, the 1
GOV.UK. 2017. Statistical News Release: Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2016-2017. [Online] Accessed 17.07.2018. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/651851/hatecrime-1617-hosb1717snr.pdf. 2 BBC, I Wonder. Huws, E. 2014. Why do they speak Welsh in South America? [Online] Accessed 17.07.2018. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z9kr9j6#zwjkwmn. 1
Italians, the Poles, the Irish, the Asians and the Africans and the likes of us, all fighting amongst ourselves for the right to call ourselves Welsh [‌]�3 The chief concern of the thesis, as evidenced by this quote, is that there are individuals and groups who are struggling to define their Welsh cultural identity while retaining the integrity of their complete cultural identity that has been informed by their heritage. Some may feel the need to choose between their Welsh identity and the identities that define them and their ancestry, or to reject their Welsh identity altogether. This feeling of exclusion is exacerbated by hate crime and those individuals who are targeted are made to feel as if they do not belong in a country where they were born and/or raised or have lived for many years. In my thesis I consider how it is possible to empower all the voices of Wales to have the resolve in their identity to remove the sting from that character of venomous attack. My thesis believes that the answer lies in poetry and education. This is not a tedious history lesson but an animated journey through the history, culture, landscape and mythology of Wales and all the social and political knowledge that journey conjures up for the reader. The education comes in the shape of Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language. Before I explain how this is possible I want to give you a brief history of Welsh poetic forms and metre. Welsh poetic forms and metre pre-date the sixth century and were used by poets such as Taliesin. My research begins in the 12th century, shortly before the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and the loss of the fight for Welsh independence. During this time a group of highly skilled bards, known as The Poets of the Princes, occupied the Welsh courts. Their position was creative, political and military. There were three stages to becoming a master poet in medieval Welsh courts and it would take a pencerdd, also known as chief-of-song and highest-ranking poet in the household, nine years to master the craft of the cynghanedd. Once he had proven that he had mastered the craft, among the additional expectation of being able to recite popular historic Welsh verse as well as compose his own upon command, would he earn his position within one of the royal courts of Wales and take his seat in the bardic chair next to his patron. From this position he would advise his royal patron, commemorate his glories and praise him to God through his poetry as well as accompany his patron into battle. The death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd was the end of The Poets of the Princes and a new era of poetry began, and so ends our brief history lesson. Medieval Welsh court poets used a craft known as the cynghanedd and cerdd dafod or, in English, Welsh poetic forms and metre. There are twenty-four Welsh poetic forms and four metre. They use rhyme, alliteration and consonance to balance a harmony within a line of poetry. The musicality within each line is important and sound is often given precedence over meaning or narrative in these poems. Each line is broken into sections where rhyme, alliteration and consonance must be repeated and replicated in accordance to the rules of each of the four metres. These rules have changed throughout Welsh history and this change has taken place alongside the Welsh language. To learn to craft of the cynghanedd is to understand what has shaped Wales from the medieval period through to present day. Welsh poetic forms and metre, particularly the cynghanedd, remains popular in Welsh speaking Wales through events such as the Eisteddfod. A contemporary learning of the craft 3
Williams, C. 2002. Sugar and Slate. UK ED. Australia. Planet Books Ltd. 2
of the cynghanedd can be found primarily in local groups, clubs and cynghanedd schools run by enthusiasts’ and hobbyists’ through the medium of the Welsh language. The craft of the cynghanedd is taught in Welsh schools. Mererid Hopwood among many other Welsh speaking poets undertake this type of teaching but there is no such means that provide a consistent approach to engaging with Welsh poetic traditions in the English language. This means that the individuals who struggle with their Welsh cultural identity, specifically the individuals and communities already mentioned, are not among those who benefit from this type of education. The use of Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language in Wales has been divergent and there is no such formal school for poets looking to learn the craft of the cynghanedd outside of the Welsh language. Despite this, the impact of an education into Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language and the learning of the craft of the cynghanedd (or, Welsh metre) is important to contemporary Wales. This is because it has the potential to engage with isolated and disengaged individuals and communities in Wales by giving them an opportunity to voice their experiences of what being Welsh means to them through a craft that remains an integral part of Welsh tradition. The Poets of the Princes and their training is important when discussing the education of Welsh poetic forms and metre in contemporary Wales as any poet wishing to write in Welsh poetic forms and metre would have to undergo tuition to learn the craft. This training would be influenced by the education undergone by medieval court poets and entail a knowledge of Welsh history and the syntax of the Welsh language (but not necessarily a fluency). It is important to note that the cynghanedd in the English language is not a true representation as the process of translating the rules into the English language makes this difficult to ensure. It is not the creation of the poetry that will address isolation and disengagement with the individuals and communities mentioned but the journey undertaken. This is because the journey requires an active participation in the story of Wales, including its literary history and the unrecognised diversity of those poetic voices. While learning the craft is important to draw the individual back into Wales and to provide them a sustainable means of engaging with their Welsh cultural identity, at the beginning of the learning process an exact replication of the cynghanedd is not important. This is because the characteristics of the cynghanedd can be more readily reapplied than the metre themselves, meaning that it has the potential for a wider reach and engagement with modern Wales. The thesis considered one characteristic of the cynghanedd as of chief importance and this is musicality within Welsh poetic traditions. This has the potential for a new generation of Welsh voices to experiment with emotive poetry where language becomes less of a barrier and what we get is a provocation of emotions through sounds, like the response one may get from birdsong. The impact of this is that anyone from refugees learning English and/or bilingual and monolingual first-generation Welsh can express their views of what being Welsh means to them through a practise that feels most natural to them; and, in doing so, still allowing their voices to be heard and understood by a modern Welsh readership. Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language are an underrepresented but established part of Welsh history. A diversity of poets living and writing in Wales throughout its history have used characteristics of Welsh poetic traditions to engage with their Welsh cultural identity in a manner that does not diminish the complexity of their diverse cultural 3
identity and heritage. For instance, Lynette Roberts, an Argentinian poet who I shall go into a little later. Perhaps one of the most well-known examples of cynghanedd in the English language is a line from Fernhill by Dylan Thomas’ “Though I sang in my chains like the sea”. A contemporary example of cynghanedd in the English language is Twm Morys, a bilingual poet who writes predominately in the Welsh language. His poem, My First Love was a Plover, the title itself being a line of cynghanedd, is one of his rare examples of cynghanedd in the English language. Admittedly in his paper, Cerdd Dafod, A Poet Introduces A Welsh Metrical Tradition4, he writes: “Now, as I was the author of it, I happened to know at the time that this cywydd, though absolutely correct according to the rules of strict metre, was also a load of nonsense. But it had an immediate, sometimes very emotional, effect on audiences. I now realise that this is the most profound poem I’ve ever written.” It is this “nonsense” that makes the cynghanedd in the English language accessible, open to reinterpretation and engaging. It is vital to understand that contemporary poets, like Twm Morys and Mererid Hopwood, both who spoke in To Rhyme and Chime for a Chair5, a programme released this year promoting the cynghanedd on a Radio 4 broadcast recorded through the medium of the English language, gained recognition as Welsh language poets. Yet, Mererid Hopwood has arguably written one of the most detailed English language books on the cynghanedd, Singing in Chains6. The use of the cynghanedd outside of the Welsh language is a sensitive topic in Wales but it is crucial to note that poets, whose primary experience with the cynghanedd has been informed through the Welsh language, are active in promoting an engagement with the cynghanedd in the English language. This shows that bilingual WelshEnglish language poets, along with English, Anglo-Welsh and multicultural poets, consider the promotion of a bilingual engagement with the cynghanedd as important in twentieth century Wales. Welsh language poets are actively promoting the cynghanedd through the English language, while poems written in Welsh poetic forms and metre engage the listener they are not a consistent presence in Welsh poetry in the English language at this moment in time. Therefore, the impact of Mastering Cynghanedd7 and To Rhyme and Chime for Chair has arguably a far greater impact upon the listener than the poetry itself. This is because it takes the listener through the poetical history of Wales and explores a craft that has retained its relevance into contemporary Welsh culture. Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language has a wider implication as, through the teaching and use of the craft, it has the potential to engage with Welsh voices from a diversity of backgrounds and, by doing so, challenge contemporary poetry by making it possible for that diversity to voice their experiences of Wales. 4
Morys, T. Cerdd Dafod: A Poet Introduces A Welsh Metrical Tradition. [Online Video]. Available from: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/111155/Twm-Morys-Cerdd-Dafod-A-Poet-Introduces-aWelsh-Metrical-Tradition.pdf. [Accessed 15.05.2018]. 5 BBC Radio 4. To Rhyme and Chime for a Chair. [Online Video]. 2018. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b1pthy. [Accessed: 15.05.2018]. 6 Hopwood, M. 2016. Singing in Chains. Wales. Gomer. 7 BBC Radio 4. Mastering Cynghanedd. [Online Video]. 07.08.2017. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4/videos/1531060876955327/. [Accessed: 15.05.2018]. 4
Engaging with all the voices in Wales is vital for the positive progression of a contemporary Welsh cultural identity as a new generation of Welsh voices diverge into two groups: those who feel connected to their Welsh roots and those who do not. This new generation of voices offer a unique perspective on contemporary Welsh cultural identity that has been informed by their history and heritage. An example of this cultural collaboration can be seen in the poetical works of Lynette Roberts. Lynette Roberts was born in Argentina to parents of Welsh extraction. In 1939 she married Welsh poet, Keidrych Rhys and settled in Llanybri. She was influenced by her experiences of Wales throughout World War II and some of her best poetical works are about this subject, for example Swansea Raid. What she offered Wales was a grandiloquent poetical voice that was informed by her childhood in Argentina. Her writing style is vivid and constructs a detailed scene of rural Welsh life of which she lived on the borders. This style of poetry in Wales at the time was fresh and original. The resplendent natural landscape of Argentina was seamlessly interwoven into the fabric of Wales and Welsh culture. Lynette Roberts was influenced by Welsh poetic traditions, its sounds, rhythm and rhyme. I would now like to read out her poem, Englyn, which shares some of the characteristics of Welsh poetic traditions:
“Englyn
Where poverty strikes the pavement – there is found No cripple like contentment Which stultifies all statement Of bright thought from the brain’s tent.”
Lynette Roberts (Modern Welsh Poetry, Faber and Faber, 1944). Lynette Roberts used Welsh poetic traditions to express her experiences of Wales in the 19th century and she, like many other poets writing in the English language in Wales during that time, regarded Welsh poetic traditions as important contributors to their depictions of Wales. They used them as means of engaging with their Welsh cultural identity through the English language. While an englyn in the English language in contemporary Wales is not uncommon, it suggests a high level of poetical skill and for that reason the craft is used by a select few. As I mentioned previously, there is no formal means of engaging with Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language. My thesis makes this engagement possible by actively 5
promoting the writing of Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language through accessible and clear information. This has been achieved through a poetry collection, guide book and a supporting website that offers videos, tutorials, articles and examples of Welsh poetic forms and metre poetry in the English language. I would like to return my previous comments, specifically the craft of the cynghanedd as a journey and the importance of sound in Welsh poetic traditions, or the writing of, as Twm Morys may phrase it: “nonsense”. It is the profound mess of nonsense that makes the cynghanedd in the English language open for reinterpretation and experimentation. There is no standard means of engaging with the cynghanedd in the English language. Although a poet may follow the strict rules of the cynghanedd and understand why those rules are culturally significant, what remains after will be a poem led by musicality and the pursuit of harmony. This is what gives the cynghanedd its ability to embrace all the voices in contemporary Wales by the intelligent development of a sound that has been informed by the history, tradition and language of Wales. This could strive towards a poetical style that is recognisable as Welsh without having to incorporate Wales as a physical presence (or be pressured to replace that physical presence with another). The interweaving of cultural sound patterns could allow a Welsh cultural identity to co-exist alongside the cultural identities and heritage that have shaped the individuality of the poet. This has the potential for all the voices of Wales to have access to the means of expressing their complex cultural identities and enrich the poetical landscape of Wales. It is from the “nonsense” created out of Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language that will give contemporary Welsh poetry its poignance and power. In conclusion, by teaching the craft of the cynghanedd in the English language there is potential for a wider social benefit of addressing cultural isolation and disengagement. It will achieve this by reinterpreting a Welsh cultural identity through a lens that will in turn allow a diversity of Welsh voices to express their unexpurgated cultural identity and heritage through Welsh poetic traditions. By bridging these perspectives with Welsh poetical tradition, it is possible to redefine a twentieth century attitude towards cultural identity by challenging established perspectives of what defines a Welsh cultural identity in modern Wales. This could be achieved by the development of an inclusive depiction of Welsh cultural identity, not by a single entity representing a diversity of voices, but by facilitating a means in which all the voices of Wales can engage with Welsh poetic traditions through their own perspectives so that a contemporary and, arguable, accurate depiction of Welsh cultural identity can emerge through a poetic sound that is recognisable as being of, and from, Wales. The codification of Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language and the standardisation of this practise has the potential to gain momentum, like a chorus of bird song, where every voice is of equal importance and value to the next.
Thank you.
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