Welsh Journals

number of great and wise men who have worked well and in a generous and high-minded spirit. It has now a Constitution, which His Grace the Archbishop very effectively described as both catholic and national. The ill-omened connection with the Province of Canterbury is severed for ever, and it can appeal to the Welsh people as a Welsh National Church,- all the more truly so because it is not established. We do not believe there is a Welshman living who does not wish it every success. It may already claim that it has had sufficient statesmanship to solve the great problem of uniting rural and industrial Wales within one great organisation, a task which is baffling the politicians. The Poetry Review and Welsh Poets. The March- April issue of the Poetry Review is mainly devoted to Welsh Poets and Poetry, and it is a very interesting compilation. Although as Sarnicol points out in his short sketch, Some South Walian Poets of To-day," there is no European country to-day in which poetry is more alive and thriving than among the singers of the mountains of Snowdonia and the vales of Glamorgan, where the publication of volumes of Welsh verse is an almost every-day occurrence, yet very naturally, as the inspiration has come from purely Welsh sources, the poets have, almost without exception, sung in the native tongue, and during the last two hundred years the contribution of Wales to English poetry has been a very limited one. This was not always so. In his charming essay on the Mystic Poets in his Studies in Literature," Sir Arthur Quiller Couch suggests that it may not be entirely an accident or a coincidence that most of the great mystic poets, John Donne, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert, and Thomas Traheme, were of border-Welsh origin. And, by the way, had not Morgan Llwyd, the Welsh mystic, some deep roots in that border. Mr. A. G. Prys Jones touches upon the same point in his Wales and English Poetry," and mentions a number of other Welsh names who have counted in English song since. Judging, how- ever, by this compilation, a great many of the young Welsh poets of to-dav are making use of the English tongue partly or wholly as their medium. One thing, however, is made very clear, that so far, at any rate, their work in English bears little of the impress of genius which marks the work of the purely Welsh Fair winding sheet of mist, a-crawling o'er the bay, Coil me within thy shroud of peace, and hie me far away, And hide me in an earthen cell, to hear not what they say. Fain would I hunger for the clash of arms, and stay, Where Mars begouges men, and battles surely slay Its victims with a laugh, death-dancing through the day. It would be kinder than a tale, strong echo of a scheme To make a loved one think about the things that seem, To leave me with the wreckage of a shattered wonder-dream. Nay-winding sheet of mist, stay creeping o'er the bay, Thou wilt not wind me in thy shroud, nor hie me far away, With Heaven's own Love, I'll woo her for ever and a day. school. It seems true, whatever the scientists may say, that the true soul of Wales can only be expressed in and through the Welsh language. County Antiquarian Societies. Every Welshmen with any historical or literary interests will know what valuable and permanent work has been done by such insti- tutions as the Powysland Club and the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society and Field Club. We now hear of the intention to revive the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society, which, before the war, seemed to have got into its stride, and we hope it will greatly flourish after its resurrection. The best sign is that it has, at any rate, conceived a very ex- tensive and ambitious programme for its acti- vities, which shows that its, promoters realise that there is a great deal of work to be done, and that it is worth the doing. The truth is that every county in Wales should have and antiquarian society and field club of its own. The Cambrian Archaeological Society (or some such institution) might and should do a great deal to encourage their establishment, and also to direct and co-ordinate their activities when started. Propaganda in Schoois. From time to time we come across lurid accounts in English newspapers describing the irritation of Welsh parents at the disloyal and revolutionary doctrines taught to their children in the public schools of the Principality-especially of South Wales. We must say that we have never met such parents in the flesh, and remain somewhat scep- tical of their existence. Assuming, however, that there is something in these complaints, they come with singular ill grace from a Press which never uttered a word of complaint against the denational- ising teaching in the Welsh schools from 1870 on- wards until some few years ago. And is there nothing to be said from the nationalist parent point of view against the form and substance of such celebrations as Empire Day ? So long as there is a kind of com- mercial Imperialism in the atmosphere of the teaching in schools, there is a risk of some other propaganda entering into it. We believe, however, that on the whole Welsh teachers act with scrupulous fairness, because, for one thing, they know well enough that this kind of attempt at proselytism is seldom if ever successful. GETHSEMANE. D. T. lones.