Welsh Journals

THE WELSHWOMAN'S PAGE. By "MM." MODERN WELSH POETRY. I am most grateful to the correspondents who have kindly supplied me with the information required by Mari (Colwyn Bay). From Port Talbot, Abertridwr, and Ruthin, I have had interesting letters. Mari will find the two poems Cwyn y Gwynt and Y Fendith in Telyn y Dydd," an anthology collected by Annie Ffoulkes, published by William Lewis, Cardiff, 2/6 (paper), 3/6 (cloth). One reader generously offers to send Mari a copy if she is unable to get the little volume. Another suggests that if she is interested in modern Welsh poetry she would find the following useful: Dros y Nyth," Wil Ifan, 1/ Dail Torwg," Wil Ifan, 2/ publishers, Owen Bros., Abergav- enny. "Telyn y Nos," Cynan, 3/6; publisher, Lewis, Cardiff. Trystan ac Esyllt a Chaniadau Eraill," by Silyn Roberts; publishers, Jarvis and Foster, Bangor. Caneuon a Cherddi," W. J. Gruffydd; publishers, Jarvis and Foster. Ymadawiad Arthur a.Cherdcli Doe a Heddiw," T. Gwynn Jones. This volume is now out of print, but a copy might be obtainable. It is most encouraging to receive such ready help from readers, and I feel sure that Mari will be grateful for such full information. A SUGGESTIVE REPORT. It is not often that one reads a Board of Education Report with the interest aroused by that issued recently under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889. For one thing, it is delightful to find officially expressed thoughts which have for years been burning in one's own heart. for then even a dull document becomes a live thing. I am not so much con- cerned with that section of the report dealing with the teach- ing of Welsh and of English in our schools, although one cannot help rubbing one's sleepy after-dinner eyes, and sitting up rather straight when one reads such sentences as these:- It appears as if some schools are turning out pupils in bulk, with a very limited command of English. There are many signs which show that the work in English is becoming less accurate, less definite, and less exact. The knowledge of the language, and particularly of the literature, has im- proved; still, the technical mastery and use of the language as a living medium of expression seems to be deteriorating. The reports of the examiners on the work done in Welsh are no less disquieting. When we bear in mind that education is being most adversely criticised by the man-in-the-street, whose chief concern is economy (until the next fit of mad unreasoning extravagance possesses him !) we may soon expect to be asked If all this increasing money is being spent on teaching, why should the results be increasingly unsatisfactory? And, of course, there would be some justification for such a question, for after all, language is the basis of all knowledge, and if Welsh and English deteriorate, other branches of knowledge will become less accurate, less definite, and less exact. I know that many readers of this page have first-hand knowledge of the work thus criticised by the Board, so I only very timidly refer to it. I feel myself on surer ground when I come to that part of the report which made me thoroughly wide awake, for it is a plea for the beautification of our schools, and, as I have said, I have long been trying to summon up sufficient courage to say what the official report publishes in no measured terms. In a country where nature has distributed beauty with a lavish hand, it is sad to find any school premises drab. ugly, and untidy, the bareness within but reflecting the disorder and unsightliness without. It is to be hoped that something will be done without further delay to remove a reproach which rests ill on any educational institution in Wales, and that a new rivalry will spring up among the intermediate schools, some of which are exceedingly well kept, in the cultivation of the beautiful. To transform the inside of a school is, of course, easier than to transform the outside; to place pictures on the walls of the classrooms is a simpler matter than making the outside walls themselves a picture. Most of my readers will have read this report in full, but for the sake of those indifferent to, or sceptical of, Board publi- cations (and with the latter I have profound sympathy!) I must make another extract "the buildings do not possess the charm of age, like those of many of our great public schools, nor were they built with such noble contempt for cosi. and when they are what inspectors call old: their age is only another name tor ugliness and weakness. But even so. something can be done, and often baldness can be hidden by creepers, and drabness can be changed into colour. And the following sentences should be blazoned in letters of gold in every room where school managers meet to decide the tate of school buildings "The transformation of environment could not fail to sweeten the lives and influence the characters of the children. Such influence is not lessened because it acts insensibly." I suppose that the language of this plea for beauty is as im- passioned as official decorum will allow. May I venture to put it in freer phrase? "By all that you count precious in life, I urge you to fight that deadness to all things beautiful which is a real menace to our children to-day. One weapon is the school. Use it." Our elementary schools claim our attention first. Armed with this report, I hastened to the house of a friend, who, for the greater part of a useful public life has held several educa- tional offices and exerted no inconsiderable influence on the thought of his country. I thrust my volume on his table, and pointed to the page, crying, There, just what I've been telling you for years." He calmly adjusted his spectacles. read carefully, removed his glasses, and then, Where is the money to come from? was all he said. I quote this because that is what all our education committees will say. And how utterly irrelevant! We don't want more money; we want more aesthetic discretion in the use of that money already allotted. The inevitable paint may as well be cheerful as drab; the inevitable colour wash may as well be "suggestive" (in the Coue sense) of joy as of misery, and who ever said that large clear panes would cost more than patches of dirty glass? It is spring-cleaning time. Let some of my readers get on the school committees, and give our sadly neglected buildings some of the attention their own homes get. WHY? I wonder how many of my readers stood last Sunday, Sul y Blodau," as I did, gazing at a simple village churchyard, and thinking sadly that the dear old custom of reverencing the resting-places with flowers was dying out. It was a common sight to see groups of children bearing baskets full of primroses in posies, baby's bells," in tall beauty, and trailing ivy, to put on tiny school-fellows graves, or on some beloved parent's or teacher's grave. Last Sunday I only saw one child with a timid posy of forget-me-nots. Is this forgetfulness peculiar to Anglesea, or is it true of Wales? A recent saying of Professor Jespersen's is in this connection well worth quoting Women are more articulate than men, not more voluble." I believe this to be true, and especially true of grief-stricken women the average woman demands an outlet in expression, not necessarily verbal. It strikes me that the simple articulation innately dear to the Welshwoman, that which is satisfied by the gathering of dewy violets or shy primroses, for a loved resting-place is in danger of being changed into the elaborate tombstone, heavy mourning, and the general uncomfortableness of tynnu Wyneb hir." We are growing into a more sober, because a less simple nation. To the Puritan movement in Wales we owe some of our sternest virtues; it robbed us of a joie de civre and a naturalness in our grief which might outweigh them. If we women are more articulate than men. then let us be so more graciously. I sometimes dare to fancy that flowers bloom more sweetly in the sunshine of a woman's love for them. Correspondence relating to subjects of general interest will he welcomed. Address M.M." c/o The Welsh Outlook. Broad Street, Newtown.