Welsh Poetic Forms and Metre in the English Language
Conference Paper: WGSUS Conference. 17.05.2018. Swansea University.
Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language are an established part of Welsh history and this use has continued into the twentieth century. Welsh poetic traditions have, and continue to be, used by bilingual and monolingual poets originating from a diversity of ethnicities. The cynghanedd’s place in Welsh history is undisputable but its role in the future of Wales is unsettled when considered outside of the Welsh language. Their role in Welsh speaking Wales remains an integral part of Welsh culture but their use in the English language in Wales is inconsistent. In this paper I will discuss how this could be changed to benefit twentieth century Wales. Cultural identity remains an area of concern and race related crime has increased since the EU Referendum, as reported in official statistics and newspapers. This has effectively isolated religious and ethnic groups in Wales and disengaged them from their sense of belonging to a Welsh cultural identity. The craft of the cynghanedd has the potential to provide a solution to this disengagement.
Welsh poetic forms and metre, known as the cerdd dafod and cynghanedd, are a set of strict Welsh poetic traditions. I would like to play a short clip from a BBC Wales programme, Mastering Cynghanedd, broadcast in 2017, which briefly explains the strict rules of this Welsh poetic tradition [https://twitter.com/BBCWales/status/976414023079157760].
It is not known exactly when the cynghanedd was conceived but there are examples of their use in the Welsh language dating as far back as the fifth century by the poet Aneurin. They continue to be a fundamental part of Welsh culture and the first Eisteddfod in 1176 was founded to uphold the high standards of the bardic tradition in Wales which was formed around the craft of the cynghanedd. The craft of Welsh poetic traditions is critical to this paper. In the 12th and 13th century, a pencerdd, roughly translated to master of song, would learn his craft over a period of nine years and only once he had proven that he had mastered the craft of the cynghanedd 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.
The acknowledgement and learning of the craft of the cynghanedd has continued into twentieth century Wales. It is found primarily in local groups, clubs and cynghanedd schools run by enthusiasts’ and hobbyists’ through the medium of the Welsh language. The use of Welsh poetic forms and metre in the English language in Wales has been divergent and there is no such school for poets looking to learn the craft of the cynghanedd outside of the Welsh language. Contrary to this, 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 1
identity and heritage. These poets include Gerald Manley Hopkins, Iwan Llywd, Lynette Roberts, Nigel Jenkins, Twm Morys and Basil Bunting, among others. Perhaps one of the most well-known lines of cynghanedd in the English language is a line from Fernhill by Dylan Thomas’ “Though I sang in my chains like the sea”.
Twm Morys is a contemporary 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 Tradition1, 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. Welsh poetic traditions are an oral tradition and it is often the sound patterns created by the cynghanedd within a line of poetry that demands the attention of the listener. I would like to play a video of Twm Morys reading his poem at Voicing the Verse, Bangor University [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt_CK2P7BWA].
It is vital to understand that contemporary poets, like Twm Morys and Mererid Hopwood, both who spoke in To Rhyme and Chime for a Chair2, 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 Chains3. The use of the cynghanedd outside of the Welsh language is a sensitive topic in Wales but it is crucial to note that there are bilingual Welsh-English speaking 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, proving that there is a desire, if not a need, for this form of engagement. This 1 Morys, T. Cerdd Dafod: A Poet Introduces A Welsh Metrical Tradition. Online. Accessed 15.05.2018. Available from: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/111155/Twm-Morys-Cerdd-Dafod-APoet-Introduces-a-Welsh-Metrical-Tradition.pdf. 2 BBC Radio 4. 2018. To Rhyme and Chime for a Chair. Online. Accessed 15.05.2018. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b1pthy. BBC Wales. 2017. Mastering Cynghanedd. Online. Accessed 15.05.2018. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4/videos/1531060876955327/. 3 Hopwood, M. 2016. Singing in Chains. Wales. Gomer. Robert, L. 2005. Collected Poems. Manchester. Carcanet Press. National Portrait Gallery (1954). Lynette Roberts. [image] Available at: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw201777/Lynette-Roberts [Accessed 15 May 2018]. Beyond Text, Bangor University. (2010). VOICING THE VERSE: Y GERDD AR GÂN 7/35. [Online Video]. 17 January 2010. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt_CK2P7BWA [Accessed: 15th May 2018]. BBC Radio 4. (2017). Mastering Cynghanedd. [Online Video]. 7 August 2017. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4/videos/1531060876955327/. [Accessed: 15 May 2018].
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shows that Welsh language poets along with English, multicultural and Anglo-Welsh 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, although some of these poets may consider this form of promotion as a path to the Welsh language; while poems written in the Welsh poetic traditions engage the listener they are not a consistent presence in Welsh poetry in the English language. Therefore, its impact is debateable while the impact of Mastering Cynghanedd and To Rhyme and Chime for Chair has arguably a far greater impact upon the listener. This is because it takes the listener on a journey of the poetical history of Wales through a craft that has remained active into twentieth century Wales. Engaging with multicultural Welsh voices is vital for the positive progression of a contemporary Welsh cultural identity as a new generation of Welsh voices grow and then diverge into two groups, those who feel connected to their Welsh roots and those that do not. This new generation of voices offer a unique perspective of a contemporary Welsh cultural identity that has been informed by their history and heritage. An example of this cultural blend can be seen in the poetical works of Lynette Roberts. Lynette Roberts was born in Buenos Aires, 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. 3
What she offered Wales was a vivid and grandiloquent poetical voice that was informed by her childhood in Argentina. She wrote with the precision of a film director, constructing 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 innovative. The phosphorescent and resplendent natural landscape of Argentina was seamlessly interwoven into the fabric of Wales and Welsh culture by a woman who had watched as Swansea was bombed, been regarded as a spy in the village of Llanybri and joined the many other women hoping for their husbands to return from the war, if not intact, at least alive. Lynette Roberts was influenced by Welsh poetic traditions, its sounds, rhythm and rhyme. I would like to read one of her poems, Englyn, published in Modern Welsh Poetry (Faber and Faber, 1944) which shares some of the characteristics of Welsh poetic traditions. 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 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 to their depictions of Wales and as a means of engaging with their Welsh cultural identity through their first or preferred language. While an englyn in the English language in contemporary Wales is not uncommon, it is not usual either as the forms and metre demand a high level of poetic skill. Welsh poetic forms and metre outside of the Welsh language remain a sensitive topic in Wales. There is a disengagement and isolation of individuals and groups within twentieth century Wales which has been exacerbated by a hostile UK environment but this disengagement predates the EU Referendum. This is expressed in this 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 4
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 […]”4
My paper is not concerned with defining a Welsh cultural identity. Lynette Roberts came to live in Wales as an adult and yet she felt compelled to remain until her death. There are individuals born in Wales to mixed race parents who do not consider themselves to be Welsh, despite being schooled and spending the majority of their adult life in Wales. This paper wants to challenge a wider view of cultural identity and the preconceptions that accompany it, making Wales an inclusive environment for those who have been ostracised from a cultural identity that rightfully belongs to them by a venomous narrative of British patriotism.
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 consider it: “nonsense”. It is the profound mess of nonsense that makes the cynghanedd in the English language open for reinterpretation by a diversity of perspectives. 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 these 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 and be inclusive of all the voices in contemporary Wales: it is the development of a sound that has been informed by Welsh history, tradition and language and to intelligently develop this into a sound that is recognisably Welsh but remains open for reinterpretation and experimentation, where it is even possible to experiment with the interweaving of cultural sound patterns rather than removing Wales as physical presence in poetry only to replace it with another, and by 4 Williams, C. 2002. Sugar and Slate. UK ED. Australia. Planet Books Ltd. 5
doing so allowing a Welsh cultural identity to co-exist alongside a diversity of voices and the cultural identities and heritage that have shaped the individuality of the poet. This has the potential to establish an equal foundation so that all the voices of Wales have the means to express their complex cultural identities and enrich the poetical landscape of Wales through that complexity to create a contemporary poetical sound that is recognisably informed by Welsh poetic traditions and by distinction, being of or from Wales. It is from the “nonsense� created out of Welsh poetic tradition that will give contemporary Welsh poetry its poignance and power.
I would like to draw your attention to the poem on the slide. This is an extract from the creative collection of the PhD thesis. It uses Welsh poetic form and metre to depict the struggle of Irish immigrants who drowned traversing the river Usk in the 1820s. The poem is led by the sound patterns within each line, using musicality and harmony to provoke a specific emotion in contrast to a defined narrative that can be easily read and assimilated. This type of poem must be heard, repeated and dwelled on by its listener. For this style of writing the journey is equally important to the poetry itself, both for the poet and for the listener. A student of cynghanedd will come to understand its use in Welsh history, how the cynghanedd developed from the medieval period into twentieth century Wales — a development that took place alongside the progression of the Welsh language. Students would learn the poetical traditions of Wales, from the sound patterns, consonantal repetition, rhyme, rhythm, to how poets such as Lynette Roberts used them to express her cultural identity. They would learn what has contributed to the musicality of Welsh poetry and share their own voice in an intelligent and culturally aware manner, expanding upon the tradition of the cynghanedd outside of the Welsh language, with the potential for it to be, essentially, translated from English into any other language. The craft of the cynghanedd has been taught in Welsh schools. Mererid Hopwood among many other Welsh speaking poets undertake this type of teaching but there is no such means, outside of the books I have mentioned, that provide a consistent approach to engaging with Welsh poetic traditions outside of the Welsh language. This means that the individuals and groups who struggle with their Welsh cultural identity, particularly those that are disengaged and isolated from their Welsh cultural identity, are not among those who benefit from this type of education but teaching the craft of the cynghanedd outside of the Welsh language has a wider social benefit of addressing cultural isolation and disengagement: a knowledge of the craft of the cynghanedd will facilitate a new generation of Welsh voices to express their experiences of being Welsh through a means that is recognisably Welsh. It will do this by focusing these experiences through a lens that will in turn allow them to express their whole cultural identity and heritage. Lynette Roberts poetical style is a remarkable example of this. By bridging these perspectives with Welsh poetical tradition, it is possible to redefine a twentieth century attitude towards cultural identity by removing Wales as a physical being in Welsh poetry and redefining and challenging established preconceptions of what defines a Welsh cultural identity and Welsh poetry. This could be achieved by the development of an equal depiction of Welsh cultural identity not by representing these voices but by facilitating a means in which these voices can engage with Welsh poetic traditions through their own perspectives so that a contemporary and, arguable, accurate depiction of Welsh cultural
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identity can emerge on an equal elevation to the current contemporary depictions in Welsh poetry.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my presentation this afternoon.
Rhea Seren Phillips
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Bibliography
BBC Radio 4. 2018. To Rhyme and Chime for a Chair. Online. Accessed 15.05.2018. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b1pthy. BBC Wales. 2017. Mastering Cynghanedd. Online. Accessed 15.05.2018. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4/videos/1531060876955327/. BBC Radio 4. (2017). Mastering Cynghanedd. [Online Video]. 7 August 2017. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4/videos/1531060876955327/. [Accessed: 15 May 2018]. Beyond Text, Bangor University. (2010). VOICING THE VERSE: Y GERDD AR GÂN 7/35. [Online Video]. 17 January 2010. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Tt_CK2P7BWA [Accessed: 15th May 2018]. Hopwood, M. 2016. Singing in Chains. Wales. Gomer. Morys, T. Cerdd Dafod: A Poet Introduces A Welsh Metrical Tradition. Online. Accessed 15.05.2018. Available from: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/111155/Twm-Morys-Cerdd-Dafod-APoet-Introduces-a-Welsh-Metrical-Tradition.pdf. Robert, L. 2005. Collected Poems. Manchester. Carcanet Press. National Portrait Gallery (1954). Lynette Roberts. [image] Available at: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw201777/Lynette-Roberts [Accessed 15 May 2018]. Williams, C. 2002. Sugar and Slate. UK ED. Australia. Planet Books Ltd.
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