Eifion Wyn Gwlad Beirdd

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-# Nestling high in the mountains

-# Lies the fairest valley of all

-# Haunt of the stoat and fox

-# And home to the kestrel and hawk #

-Today, Porthmadog

-is a lively and busy town.

-Few of the tourists who come here

-will know that it was once home....

-..to Eifion Wyn,

-one of our most popular poets.

-But he didn't seek noise

-and hustle and bustle.

-He was attracted by nature,

-"nestling high in the mountains."

-28 New Street, Porthmadog.

-This was the poet's home.

-To make it easier

-for other poets to find...

-..he painted the Gorsedd logo

-above the door.

-It's still here to this day.

-He enjoyed company,

-but a select company.

-He would be pestered by people

-who wanted a poem from him.

-This is the way he went to work

-at the slate company office in town.

-He would sneak out via the back door.

-I know it comes, the honey month

-With its tumult in the willows.

-Despite his clandestine ways...

-..Eifion Wyn

-was a very plain speaker.

-He'd say things quite openly.

-He was no stranger

-to arguments in the press.

-He liked to praise himself too.

-He says this in a preface

-to one of his books.

-"I well know that

-it is not wholly bereft of merit.

-"There are many who would

-call it self-aggrandizement."

-Eifion Wyn was quite a character.

-I'd say that Eifion Wyn,

-above all, was a romantic poet.

-He was his era's main lyric poet,

-according to Williams Parry.

-He typically wrote poems about love.

-There were poems about nature.

-He praised the beauty

-of the countryside.

-He wrote Welsh patriotic songs too.

-They're somewhat sentimental.

-In that respect,

-I would suggest this.

-He was Ceiriog's heir

-in the 20th century.

-Eifion Wyn was born on 2nd May, 1867.

-He taught at Snowdon Street school

-in Porthmadog.

-He was also a renowned preacher,

-very much in demand every Sunday.

-But preaching on Sunday

-and teaching on Monday didn't mix.

-He would travel quite far to preach.

-He sometimes couldn't get back

-for school at 9.00am on a Monday.

-His enraged headmaster

-wrote an entry in the school logbook.

-"This preaching business must stop."

-Ultimately,

-it was the teaching that stopped.

-He became an office clerk

-at a slate works in Porthmadog.

-It's not clear

-whether he enjoyed his job.

-But in that quiet office,

-he could think about his poetry.

-He didn't enjoy the best of health.

-He caught pneumonia

-as a two-year-old.

-That left its mark on him

-for the rest of his life.

-He suffered from lung ailments.

-He considered becoming a minister,

-but gave up the idea.

-He believed that his poor health

-was an issue.

-It would have been too much for him.

-Eifion Wyn wasn't his real name.

-He was christened Eliseus Williams.

-Eifion Wyn was a bardic name.

-He became known as Eifion Wyn

-from the moment he won this Chair.

-He won it at the Pwllheli

-town eisteddfod of 1886.

-It now stands proudly in the foyer

-of Porthmadog's primary school.

-The school is named after him.

-What is the sea and its tides -

-God's very first Creation?

-Go now to the Autumn woods

-When a rainbow's in the trees.

-One thing strikes you

-about his poems.

-They're easy to understand.

-This probably explains

-his great popularity.

-His books sold by the thousand,

-not by the hundred.

-Two of his hymns

-remain firm favourites even now.

-"Gospel of peace,

-oh, go thee worldwide."

-"Place on my head your sacred hand."

-His love poems

-are still heart-warming.

-Take it as a treasure and keep it.

-I'll try to do without to please you.

-Take it as a heart

-that's whole, my love.

-I would not want half

-of my own heart.

-Take it as a toy

-but remember my cry.

-It's a fragile plaything

-that gold cannot buy.

-Take it by itself,

-don't look for more.

-The heart won't coexist

-as one of two.

-Send me your old one

-please, in exchange.

-Your part-used heart will do for me.

-As a lyric poet,

-there's a clarity there.

-There's beauty too,

-and that element of sweetness.

-Contemporary poets described

-lyrical poetry as old sweetness.

-We must remember that Eifion Wyn

-came in the wake of The New Bard.

-Poets who were preachers wrote

-philosophical, abstract pieces.

-Nobody quite understood them.

-There was no problem

-with Eifion Wyn.

-His poems were direct and simple.

-His work appealed to ordinary folk.

-In his day, his themes

-struck a chord with his readers.

-Poets are a funny lot.

-They'll choose a girl's name

-as it suits them.

-Menna, or Men,

-was a popular name at the time.

-But it makes for good cynghanedd,

-and rhymes well.

-Many of Eifion Wyn's

-love poems refer to Men...

-..but the poems were probably

-about his wife, Annie.

-I loved you in your youth, Men

-My heart knows, as does yours

-Before your April fades, Men

-Before your buds become flowers.

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-The fairest valley of all.

-As Mererid mentioned, Eifion Wyn

-was involved in poetic quarrels.

-Most certainly,

-a storm broke out in 1900.

-He was runner-up

-for the National Eisteddfod Chair.

-He was so sure that his ode,

-Y Bugail, had deserved better...

-..that he published it

-so that the public could decide.

-He came second to Pedrog.

-Pedrog had won the Chair previously.

-Eifion Wyn's opinion was clear.

-One should win the Chair

-only once at the Eisteddfod.

-One effort to captivate the nation.

-Something similar happened in 1902.

-There was an Eisteddfod competition

-for six lyric poems.

-Ora Pro Nobis was one entry.

-Our father, remember the seaman

-at night by his mast

-His ship is so tiny

-and your ocean so vast.

-He published the poems,

-with a preface as follows.

-"These lyrics, as presented,

-can speak for themselves.

-"They were considered

-second best by Job."

-That was a pointed remark

-about the adjudicator, JT Job.

-Our Father, remember the birds

-Our Father, remember the seaman.

-However, winning

-also brought its problems.

-He won first prize

-at the National Eisteddfod...

-..for 12 englynau

-on the subject The Garden...

-..among them the famous englyn

-about heather flowers.

-The pretty growth of a silent force.

-However, the work prompted

-an even bigger controversy.

-One W Arthur Roberts

-of London wrote this...

-..after the 1906 Eisteddfod,

-in a letter to the press.

-"I cannot for the life of me

-understand what merit was seen...

-"..in Eifion Wyn's winning englyn

-to the heather flowers.

-"I know an englyn when I see one,

-as well as the next man.

-"But I cannot even find as much...

-"..as the grain of a mustard seed

-here in descriptive poetry terms."

-A slap in the face, I'd say.

-You're right, but Eifion Wyn

-himself pulled no punches.

-Cybi protested at an Eisteddfod

-about not being awarded the Chair.

-Was Eifion Wyn the adjudicator?

-Yes, and it all kicked off

-between them in the press.

-This is what he said about Cybi.

-"Poor Cybi, with his giant's face

-and his dwarf's nape.

-"Did ever a weaker opponent

-stand on any field?"

-For one who wrote so beautifully,

-he could be vitriolic too.

-He's remembered for adjudicating

-the Crown competition of 1915...

-..at the Bangor National Eisteddfod.

-The subject was The City.

-He opposed awarding the prize

-to TH Parry-Williams.

-He had one main reason for this.

-It was because his city

-was full of evil and immorality.

-There was no temple, no faith,

-no beauty in that city.

-He believed that poetry

-should be uplifting.

-That was the standard that he set.

-He was criticized afterwards

-by poets and fellow adjudicators.

-He was accused of being puritanical

-and narrow-minded.

-He may well have been,

-and he was a prickly fellow...

-..but he was a man

-who kept his own high standards.

-Walking by the River Dwyfor,

-he could find peace of mind.

-He'd put his quarrels behind him.

-He derived great pleasure

-from fishing in this river.

-His muse visited him here

-many times.

-I loved you, my Dwyfor,

-In the morn of my world.

-The babbling of your waters

-Has entered my soul.

-Many poets have compared

-a river's flow with life's journey.

-It's especially appropriate,

-as the Dwyfor is a short river.

-You can almost get to know it.

-You start at its source

-in Cwm Pennant, and on to the sea.

-It changes with the landscape.

-Sometimes, it flows along smoothly.

-Gravel lies on the river bed.

-At other times...

-..it's white and foaming.

-In Yr Afon,

-a poem written in simple language...

-..the river is portrayed

-as a slave girl.

-She's imprisoned by the banks.

-She yearns

-for the freedom of the sea.

-She longs to be able to rest...

-..in the vast waters of the oceans.

-It's a simple, lovely lyric.

-The slave of the banks

-And a cry for freedom

-That's the river,

-daughter of the deep

-Trafficked from home.

-By night and in daylight

-On sand and on grit

-It keeps in all places

-its face towards home

-Like a maiden abroad.

-The old shingle banks cannot slow it

-Nor greenwoods entice it

-except for a rest.

-It must find the sea.

-It sighs so sadly

-On slopes and through fields

-The yearning persists

-and won't go away

-Till it reaches the sea.

-Lest we think of Eifion Wyn

-as a dour soul...

-..we should remember

-his love of sport.

-Cricket and snooker,

-or billiards in particular.

-A letter from the young poet

-R Williams Parry testifies to this.

-He had written to Eifion Wyn...

-..requesting a game of billiards

-when he was next in Porthmadog.

-However, he sounded a warning note.

-"Thus I sing ye budding bards

-"Meddle ye not with billiards."

-Some lines and poems by Eifion Wyn

-are still heard today.

-They're easy to sing

-when set to music.

-We must also remember

-his contribution as a hymn writer.

-Seven of his works

-are in the Caneuon Ffydd hymn book.

-Eifion Wyn is still relevant.

-In his preface

-to Telynegion Maes A Mor...

-..Eifion Wyn writes about how

-he would love to be cherished....

-..by his native people

-as a lyric poet.

-Undoubtedly, his wish came true.

-Of all the images

-we hold of Eifion Wyn....

-..surely the most enduring

-is the image of him...

-..as the lord of Cwm Pennant.

-The fairest valley of all.

-Nestling high in the mountains

-Lies the fairest valley of all

-Haunt of the stoat and fox

-And home to the kestrel and hawk.

-I don't own a foot's breadth of it

-Nor even a sheep or a dog

-But here by my fire at nightfall

-I feel that I am lord of it all.

-I love my single-chimneyed cottage

-You see in that little ravine

-Whitewash like snow on its gable

-And whinberry bushes all round.

-The door may be low as you enter

-But it's open by day and by night.

-Around it,

-the tinkling welcoming bells

-Each season of two clear streams.

-If ever I go on a day trip

-To visit a town far away

-I find myself always listening

-For a croak or a whistle or bleat.

-I'm longing to see the old hillside

-And blueness like sea in the sky

-And feeling the moss under my feet

-As we stroll - Gwen, children and I.

-I'll love this cwm of my boyhood

-For as long as I love at all.

-Its slopes grow still dearer

-As old age holds me in thrall

-And I ask, with every new dawning

-My foot on the ridge where it bends

-Why, Lord, did you make

-Cwm Pennant so fair

-While the life of a shepherd

-soon ends?

-The life of a shepherd soon ends.

-S4C Subtitles by Adnod Cyf.

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