Welsh Journals

Reviews. Poems of Wales. By A. G. Prys-Jones. Oxford; Basil Blackwell, 1923. 2/6 net. Welsh lovers of English verse will welcome with delight Mr. Prys-Jones first volume of poems, not only for its specially Welsh appeal but also for its real poetry and the mastery of poetic technique throughout displayed. Among the group of Welshmen who now sing in English, Mr. Prys-Jones is pre-eminent in artistic craftsmanship, in sensitiveness to beauty, in his gift of felicitous phrase and the singing quality of his verse; and this volume well fulfils the great promise shown in those early poems which the Welsh Outlook had the privilege of publishing. Such a volume naturally tempts one to inquire whether any peculiarly Celtic note is to be found which differentiates these poems from the large output of modern English verse. The magnificent body of poetry that came from Ireland in the first decade of the century was infused with a peculiarly Celtic fragrance, and breathed an atmosphere indisputably Irish. Its poetic technique was marked by a cadence and an idiom foreign to the English verse of the day. W. B. Yeats, AE., Padraig Colum. James Stephens and James Campbell and others, have in common a distinctly Irish aroma. It cannot be said, however, that one finds in the technique of Prys-Jones, apart from the poetic content of his poetry, any divergence from the traditional and current poetic manner of English poets. Mr. John Drinkwater, in a recent volume cf criticism, admits that "no good poet has ever worked without some examples in his mind" of his noetic predecessors and compeers, so that we are not sur- prised to catch in Mr. Prys-Jones' early poems strains of an older music, which show that he has studied to good purpose the rhythm, the idiom, and the manner of the masters of English word melody. The rhythmic pattern, for example, of Masefield's "Cargoes," has been admirably modified in Prys- Jones' "Palestine." and in his beautifully conceived "Madonna" he catches, too, the Rosetti note with its blend of magic witchery and pre-raphaelite concrete imagery. But for Prys-Jones these are but "steps by which he doth ascend." He soon frees himself from the tutelage of others, and in the rhythmic structure of his lines, in the variety of his ver.,e forms, his capture of the inevitable word and his cunning management of rhyme sequence he proves himself a skilled and original craftsman. His language is heightened or lowered in key to fit his thoughts. In his romantic poems, when his imagination is afire with pride in, the storied past of his native land. or with delight at its beauty of hill and stream, his diction glows with a mosaic of colour, is interwoven with metaphor and simile, and is rich in musical suggestiveness. For example, in the poem "Valeria," in which an exquisite fancy is beautifully worked out, the couplet To dwell beside the turquoise of the sea That moves in silken rustling tidelessly." captures the eye and the ear. When, however, he sketches with quiet humour such rustic worthies as 'Evan Tom the Sexton,' or 'Dick Fisherman,' he strips his lines of all verbal ornament and with perfect economy of means secures the effect he desires. But if his manner and technique are English his spirit, his imaginative sympathy, and the subject matter of his poems are Welsh through and through. Like his "Valeria," a Roman ladv buried at Caerleon, "the ancient mysteries of this land had knocked at his heart," and he, like her, By the murmurous banks of silver Usk Had heard upon the dim, fay-haunted dusk Strange melodies and sweet." The romantic past of Wales siezes his imagination. Whether he sings the heroic achievements of a "race that followed the call of the singing sword that rang athwart the years," or in nervous, irregular, skilfully rhymed lines vividly realises a night raid of the Northmen on Gower, or in a splendidly stirring ballad catches the spirit of the moon- light nde of father and son to join Glyndwr's rising, he grips his readers and stirs their patriot blood. In poem after poem the beauty of her woods, streams and hills call forth his song. No note is more frequently struck in English poetry of to-day than the poetry of localities. If Belloc and Kipling sing the praise of Sussex, Drinkwater of Warwick woods, Housman and Masefield of Shropshire, so does rPrysrJones sing of South West Wales; of "Talley mere bathed in moonlight," of "Glamorgan hills that look toward the sea," of "Towy Vale from Penlan hill," where "Towy loth to go, twists and turn at every throw," of St. Govan's Cell "by the side of the Pembroke sea," of Caldey and her house of prayer, of Gower sands "and sunsets past imagining," and generally of The healing peace of the mountains and the gleam of the lowland corn, And the voices out of the twilight-in the land where I was born." While, however, his predominant note is romantic and lyrical,-and several of his shorter lyrics have a lightness of touch and a well balanced form-he can be strong and dramatic with grim suggestive- ness ,as in "On hearing A.W.P.G. play one of Rachmaninoff's preludes." And he has admirably succeeded in his playful sketches of Welsh char- acters. With a light touch he makes us visualise many an old time figure: Old Evan Tom the Sexton Was three-score years and ten He'd put away more people Than he'd ever see again. and 'Old Dick Fisherman,' who Has something in his eyes That comes out of wandering Beneath wet skies." "The Roadman," too, is quite a successful experi- ment in 'Vers Libre.' Direct, irregular and un- adorned, it has just the desired cadence which dis- tinguishes it from prose, and justifies its acceptance as poetry; and its concluding couplet, somehow remains in the mind Sometimes he makes me think Whether I keep a road clean-for anyone." EDGAR JONES. Roman Britain. By R. G. Collingwood, F.S.A. Oxford University Press, World's Manual Series. In this small book of one hundred pages Mr. Collingwood has succeeded in placing before his readers a clear and concise account of what the Roman occupation of Britain meant. It does not pretend to be a treatise for specialists, but it is a book that can be thoroughly recommended to the general reader, and to those who would like to study Roman remains in this island. The author has no hesitation in expressing his own opinions on disputable points; he regrets the idea that our British predecessors were mere painted barbarians he insists that the Roman civilization was not a thin veneer on the upper classes, but had penetrated deep among all classes of the population; but he n opposed to Seebohm's contention of the continuity of Roman influence and will not even admit a survival of Roman civilization, "sheltered in the ark of the cities." Mr. Collingwood writes attractively, and as one thoroughly versed in his subject; the illus- trations are well chosen and really do illustrate his text. OXON.