Welsh Journals

his hand. Partly also it is a token of a restless- ness of spirit which we must try to understand. For fundamentally, Mr. Gruffydd is un-English, and his imitations do him wrong. No poet ot to-day is more really native. Perhaps he does not "express the soul of Wales." That sort of disease must be left to the Anglo-Welsh. But he is simply bone Welsh, shaped and twisted into being and utterance by the intense narrow world of his childhood and youth. Nonconform- ity has deeply marked him. He has done the treadmill of- "Seiat, Cwrdd Gweddi, Dorcas, a Chwrdd Plant," and they have stamped his mind and language. Will he suffer me to say that he has even some- thing of their jargon? He talks a little too glibly to God, and at least one of his prayers, the "Litani," is, like many prayers, an instance of "taro'r post i'r pared glywed," and is unpleasant. Enough of that. There is in Mr. Gruffydd also something noble and older than the Puritanism of 19th century Wales, something which that Puritanism often graced and respected, but equally often feared and fought. It is the old culture of Wales; the culture and generosity of mind which could never come to terms with the Anglicised and bourgeois respectability of Puritanism, but generally remained outside in the fields, or, ramparted in a last stronghold, the village inn. It is the "parlour of the Red Cow," as one poem in this book has it, which has kept clear and brave and virile the Welsh language, the language of Mr. Gruffydd's best verse and of his short stories. And somehow or other Mr. Gruffydd has inherited this culture and this well- sinewed speech. It is present in all his work. Listen to it "Lle'r ei di, Twm Pen Ceunant, Lle'r ei di ar draws y byd, A Sioned bron a hollti A'i hwyliau'n garpiau i gyd?" "Yn ol i'r Felinheli 'Rwy'n mynd, co bach, ho ho, Yn morio am 'y mywyd, Saith mis o Callao." Ai llawer ei gariadau ef, ai un? Ai ffug ai gwir oedd angerdd ei gan serch, Ai gwamal oedd ei gweryl ef a'r dyn A ddamniai fab am garu tegwch merch, Ai protest proffwyd? — Ni wn, ac ni'm dawr. Ond gwn y carai yntau fel myfi Chwiban y ceiliog bronfraith gyda'r wawr, To Readers. — We shall be pleased to send a specimen copy of THE WELSH OUTLOOK to friends of readers resident abroad. "Beth sy gen ti dan dy hatsus, I'th yrru'n mhell o'th go Yn ol i'r Felinheli Saith mis o Callao?" "Mae'r diawl o dan yr hatsus Yn sownd, co bach, dan glo, A dyna pan 'rwy'n brysio Saith mis o Callao." Of course this life in the "Red Cow" has also its poor side, which shows itself in occasional insincerity, and a crude revolt against tradition and authority. One can see these qualities sometimes in Mr. Gruffydd's less happy work. Now it is the clash or the reconciliation of these two traditions of Puritanism and the old Welsh culture which accounts for Mr. Gruffydd's most characteristic poetry. In that noble out- burst of indignation which he calls "the Pharisees" we can see the clash. In the simple and beautiful "Sionyn" it is the reconciliation. And it is curious to examine closely the mingling of the two traditions and the two moods. The "Pharisees" gives us the Seiat condemned with a nice irony in the language of the Seiat and the Red Cow mood. "Sionyn" is the Seiat blessing the Red Cow and learning its speech. There is a line in the "Tyddynwr" which has the bitter, downright statement of the Red Cow and the imagery of the Seiat:- "A Duw yn gynnil iawn o'i bethau da." We are at last getting used to hearing Mr. Gruffydd called a religious poet; but we should discriminate. There is more Christian spirit in the bitterness of that one line than in all the prayers to God or the Holy Ghost which this book contains. For Mr. Gruffydd at his noblest is a poet of compassion, of generous anger and sympathy. It is a long time since these accents were last heard in Welsh, and Mr. Gruffydd is the successor of Talhaearn. But he has a broader culture than Talhaearn, a purer taste and a more sensitive mind. Yet has he the same heritage of language and a kindred spirit. And luckily he has many years yet to write more books of verse, and to enrich our literature with brave challenge. There are misprints in this book on pages 38 and 40. DAFYDD AP GWILYM. A blodau Mai, a'r lloergan ar y Hi, A gwn fod bronfraith eto yn y coed, A blodau eto ar hyd feusydd Mai, A rhywun arall heno'n cyrchu'r oed Yng ngoleu'r lloer, — ac yntau dan y clai, Y bardd a'u carodd, heb eu gweled mwy; -A'u carodd fel y caraf finnau hwy. OvNAN.