0:00:00 > 0:00:00- 888
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0:00:35 > 0:00:37- "I know I lost my way
0:00:37 > 0:00:40- "And wandered moors and mountains - many times
0:00:41 > 0:00:44- "But was this old pilgrim confused
0:00:44 > 0:00:48- "In believing - someone knew the way?"
0:00:58 > 0:01:00- Swansea National Eisteddfod, 1926.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03- The set task for the Crown.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06- A selection of original poems, - and Dewi Emrys won.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09- For his poems about the highway.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11- He and the road were old friends.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15- He knew Pembrokeshire's lanes - and London's busy streets.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18- He'd travelled a fair bit.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22- Wherever you turn in his poems, - he's always travelling.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30- The yearning for an open road - torments you every day
0:01:31 > 0:01:35- Swansea National Eisteddfod, 1926
0:01:35 > 0:01:39- His record is unsurpassed - at the National Eisteddfod.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43- After winning the Crown, - he won the Chair four times...
0:01:43 > 0:01:46- ..between 1929 and 1948.
0:01:46 > 0:01:52- This success probably led - to a new rule being put in place.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57- No-one can now win any principal - literary prize more than twice.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00- Dewi had everything.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02- He could accomplish anything.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04- He could recite wonderfully.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08- At competitions, - he swept all before him.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11- He was a singer - and an eloquent preacher.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14- He drew large congregations.
0:02:17 > 0:02:23- But he was a restless soul - who found life's journey difficult.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27- At one time, he led a tramp's life - on these London streets.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32- He then wandered around - the south of England and Wales.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36- Plenty of people criticized him - for losing his way.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39- But Dewi Emrys spoke the truth.
0:02:39 > 0:02:45- You ought not to criticize anyone - unless you've lost the way yourself.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49- "It's so easy for a land to judge - from a white fort
0:02:50 > 0:02:52- "An old boat that's crumbling
0:02:52 > 0:02:55- "Let the judges form their judgement
0:02:55 > 0:02:57- "Upon the sea where battles raged."
0:03:04 > 0:03:07- Dewi Emrys was born in 1881.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11- His father was a Congregationalist - minister in Llandudno.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16- Dewi Emrys - says little in his work...
0:03:17 > 0:03:20- ..about his earliest days - in North Wales.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25- But when his father is called - to Rhosycaerau in Pembrokeshire...
0:03:25 > 0:03:27- ..the family moves to Pen-caer.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31- Here, the seven-year-old boy - finds a new lease of life.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40- Dewi Emrys encounters somewhere - that will inspire him for life.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44- He noted his love of this place - many times.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46- This is how he described it.
0:03:46 > 0:03:52- "There were opened up for me - the doorways of my first dreams."
0:03:53 > 0:03:56- Looking around, - it's easy to see why.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08- He found his paradise outdoors.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12- After school, - he went ferreting and rock climbing.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15- But even when he describes - his childhood...
0:04:15 > 0:04:18- ..he mentions a cloud of distress.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21- In his first attempt - at rhymed verse...
0:04:22 > 0:04:24- ..he describes a woman weeping.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27- It may be an early clue - to his later muse.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32- Sometimes, the storm - does vanquish the song.
0:04:34 > 0:04:40- "In the tempest, so powerless is - the chaffinch's song in the bush."
0:04:50 > 0:04:54- Dewi Emrys's father - suffered from depression.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58- This illness was perhaps - a dreadful black cloud.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00- It left a mark - early in the poet's life.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03- Certainly, in the longer term...
0:05:03 > 0:05:06- ..his father - had to leave Rhosycaerau.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10- The illness also forced him - to leave the ministry.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16- In the end, his parents - were living apart.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22- It was an unstable family home.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27- There was poverty, - and a realization of failure.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30- The father - went to the mental hospital.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34- These black shadows affected Dewi - for the rest of his life.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40- He suffered the same mental - health problems as his father.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44- He got into difficulties, poor chap.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53- On the whole, he writes longingly - about childhood.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57- He knows it's a time - when everything ought to be good.
0:05:58 > 0:06:00- He brings us to the school yard.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02- This is how he puts it.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07- "The glade of the first mile
0:06:07 > 0:06:09- "It is childhood's heaven.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13- "Leaping before seeing the way ahead
0:06:13 > 0:06:16- "Playing before starting to live.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18- "The world's end is the horizon
0:06:18 > 0:06:21- "To the joyful little tenants
0:06:21 > 0:06:25- "And neither fear nor memory climbs
0:06:25 > 0:06:28- "Over the wall of this glade."
0:06:33 > 0:06:35- Playing before starting to live
0:06:41 > 0:06:45- After his father's illness - had worsened...
0:06:45 > 0:06:48- ..Dewi Emrys and his family - moved to Carmarthen.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51- He was 19 years old.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56- After a period as a cub reporter - on the Carmarthen Journal...
0:06:57 > 0:07:02- ..he became a ministerial student - at the town's Presbyterian College.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09- His career as a minister - was colourful, to say the least.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11- But one thing is clear.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15- As a pastor, - he was popular with his flock.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20- After spells as a minister - in Pontypridd and Buckley...
0:07:21 > 0:07:24- ..Dewi came to Finsbury Park - in London.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28- He was to receive a huge salary - of 400 a year.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32- But all was not sweetness and light.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34- There were problems at home.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38- By this time, he and his wife, - Cissie, had two sons.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43- Cissie's two sisters - had also come to live with them.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45- Money was spent like water.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49- Dewi Emrys felt - that he had to escape.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55- He left his family and his church.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58- He joined the Army for a while.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01- He then became a journalist - on Fleet Street.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04- But he was very short of money.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07- He was being sued by his wife.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10- It all led ultimately - to poverty and hardship...
0:08:11 > 0:08:14- ..and living on the street.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17- He didn't see the value of money.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19- He would share his last penny.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22- But often, he didn't have a penny.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27- The record of his arrival here - at the House of Charity, Soho...
0:08:27 > 0:08:31- ..is just a single word - penniless.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38- My mother used to work - for her brother in London.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43- She attended chapel in London - and recalled seeing Dewi Emrys...
0:08:43 > 0:08:48- ..singing outside the chapel, - with his hat in his hand.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51- It was as if he was challenging - the establishment.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54- He seemed to be saying...
0:08:54 > 0:08:58- .."Here I am. This is what - I stand for. You've rejected me."
0:09:01 > 0:09:04- He was extremely critical of them.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08- "I stand outside the entrances - of all the Welsh chapels in London.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13- "I offer poetry to the fattened - men of commerce who worship God.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16- "They walk right past, avoiding me.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20- "They caress their hymn books, - and enter in respectability...
0:09:21 > 0:09:23- "..to worship - their God of selfishness."
0:09:24 > 0:09:26- It's quite caustic criticism!
0:09:28 > 0:09:32- A nature-based religion, - not one confined to four walls.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35- That's what appeals to Dewi Emrys.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37- He says that formality is a curse.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41- It kills the God - who laughs in the flowers.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48- Even though he loved - the world of nature...
0:09:49 > 0:09:52- ..his love for mankind - was greater still.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56- In his poem Ffos Y Clawdd, - he chides the birds...
0:09:56 > 0:09:59- ..for having awoken the girl - who lies in the gutter.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04- They deny her the only form - of escape she has - sleep.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10- "Come, my fellow, - the stars are escaping
0:10:10 > 0:10:13- "The kindly night - is departing the land
0:10:14 > 0:10:17- "The blackbird blows the dew - from its pipe of gold
0:10:17 > 0:10:21- "Before awakening the fields - with its shrill whistle
0:10:23 > 0:10:27- "Before awakening the fields, - and awakening her
0:10:27 > 0:10:30- "And recalling her - from her faraway paradise
0:10:31 > 0:10:34- "If I could, - I would insist on silence today
0:10:35 > 0:10:38- "No twitter would sound - from the bush nearby
0:10:41 > 0:10:44- "Oh, come, - the angelic smile vanished
0:10:44 > 0:10:47- "And the pale maiden's - white heaven ended
0:10:48 > 0:10:52- "That foolish blackbird - is whistling already
0:10:52 > 0:10:54- "Oh, pity upon her.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57- "Magdalene."
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0:11:18 > 0:11:23- And he speaks of another Shepherd - Who gave his life to save his lambs.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28- Why has the poem Pwllderi...
0:11:28 > 0:11:32- ..always been - such a firm favourite in Wales?
0:11:32 > 0:11:36- It's hard to say. - The dialect's pretty.
0:11:36 > 0:11:42- He uses local vocabulary - rather than familiar words.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45- But the poem - is so typical of his work.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51- Even amid all this natural beauty, - he reveals a man in a quandary.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54- He talks of a shepherd and a lamb.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59- He says that, ultimately, - money doesn't count.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02- He returns to that old question.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04- What is value?
0:12:05 > 0:12:07- What really counts?
0:12:09 > 0:12:12- This is Dewi's central message.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14- God is the Good Samaritan.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17- He helps those who have fallen.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20- The message is in Pwllderi, - truly his greatest poem.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23- Dewi himself is the lost sheep.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28- He believes that God's love - reaches and raises the fallen.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30- God of the destitute.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40- "Yesterday, sitting above Pwllderi
0:12:41 > 0:12:44- "Where once lived eagles, - and bears, and bogeys
0:12:44 > 0:12:47- "Those haughty townspeople - down by there
0:12:48 > 0:12:50- "Have no idea it's so wild up here.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55- "You stand up high - above this dungeon
0:12:55 > 0:12:58- "Looking down - on a bottomless cauldron
0:13:00 > 0:13:02- "Boiling between the greyish rocks
0:13:02 > 0:13:07- "Like brimful milk churns - or foaming suds.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09- "Just thinking of it - this very minute
0:13:10 > 0:13:12- "Sends a shudder through my heart.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19- "I'll never forget - that dreadful night
0:13:19 > 0:13:23- "The shipwrecked sailor - shouting with all his might
0:13:23 > 0:13:27- "Calling, calling, but no reply
0:13:28 > 0:13:31- "And only seabirds to hear his cry
0:13:34 > 0:13:36- "While those hawks, - like silent devils
0:13:37 > 0:13:40- "Waited for the light - to leave his eyes."
0:13:48 > 0:13:51- After the description - of the sailor in the storm...
0:13:51 > 0:13:57- ..comes the image of the shepherd, - risking his life to save his lamb.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02- "You then may sit - on an old oak settle
0:14:03 > 0:14:06- "And listen to the shepherd's tale.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10- "He'll talk little - about the knock he got
0:14:10 > 0:14:13- "Rescuing a lamb - from a perilous spot
0:14:13 > 0:14:16- "Far less admit - it took rope and chain
0:14:17 > 0:14:19- "To pull him back up to safety.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30- "But he'll say, perhaps, - with his voice clearly trembling
0:14:31 > 0:14:34- "What sent him down - through rocks and thorns
0:14:34 > 0:14:38- "Not the lamb's market value in town
0:14:40 > 0:14:43- "But its cry as it bleated - for someone to come.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48- "And he speaks of another Shepherd
0:14:49 > 0:14:52- "Who gave his life - to save his lambs.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58- "And those are the things - that come to mind
0:14:58 > 0:15:02- "When you sit there above Pwllderi."
0:15:14 > 0:15:18- Pwllderi was a winning entry - at the 1926 Swansea Eisteddfod.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21- That was the year - Dewi won the Crown.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26- He was in the glare - of newspaper publicity.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31- After almost a decade apart, - his wife tracked him down.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33- She demanded his prize money.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36- He sold his Crown - in a shop in the town.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40- He had a very difficult period.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45- Having been arrested for writing - cheques that were dishonoured...
0:15:45 > 0:15:50- ..Dewi Emrys was given refuge - in Llandovery by JD Jones.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55- He loved strolling - along the banks of the River Tywi.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00- In his own words, he was - "with the gods of the muse".
0:16:00 > 0:16:03- He wrote another poem at this time.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07- It was his ode - for the 1929 Liverpool Eisteddfod.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11- It would win him the first - of his four national Chairs.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15- The literary world was divided.
0:16:15 > 0:16:20- There was an increasing envy - of Dewi Emrys and his winning ways.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24- Some sulked, and some condemned - his conservative style.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30- Dewi Emrys hits back, - writing in newspaper articles.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36- He labels the work produced - by the new poets "fanciful fashion".
0:16:36 > 0:16:38- He shares the people's view.
0:16:38 > 0:16:44- They view the work of modern poets - as nothing but "a glorious bluff".
0:16:44 > 0:16:47- He's not one to follow fashion.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54- Woe betide him whose colour - is different from all the others!
0:16:54 > 0:16:58- The critics - held respected academic posts.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00- But Dewi was a fallen man.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04- He was very sensitive - to the criticism, which hurt him.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13- By 1937, he was back in London.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18- He attempted to set up home - at West Square, Elephant and Castle.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21- But the Second World War intervened.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29- He was in love with a young teacher - called Dilys Cadwaladr.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31- They had a child.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34- It was a difficult situation - in those days.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39- The bohemian couple attempted - to raise their daughter Dwynwen...
0:17:39 > 0:17:43- ..far away from the prejudice - to be found in Wales.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47- But escaping from wartime bombs - became the priority.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53- After nights spent - in underground shelters...
0:17:53 > 0:17:58- ..the little girl, Dwynwen, - was sent to her mother's relatives.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01- They lived in Penmorfa, - near Porthmadog.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07- Oh! Restless little soul, - will yearning forever be your joy?
0:18:07 > 0:18:11- Within a few months, - Dewi was invited...
0:18:12 > 0:18:15- ..to stay with a friend - in Cardiganshire.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17- Dilys had moved on elsewhere.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24- But when Dewi acquired a cottage - in Talgarreg, Ceredigion...
0:18:24 > 0:18:27- ..Dwynwen came to live - with her father.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31- Y Bwthyn, Talgarreg - was to be Dewi's home...
0:18:31 > 0:18:33- ..for the rest of his life.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38- It was a golden period for Dewi.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41- He and Dwynwen at home, - playing together.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45- He was like a little boy. - He'd rediscovered his childhood.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49- The final part of his life - was a very happy period.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59- Here in Talgarreg, - he not only raised Dwynwen...
0:19:00 > 0:19:03- ..but also, in a way, - raised a nestful of poets.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06- He ran the poetry column in Y Cymro.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08- He ran the poetry column in Y Cymro.- - Yes, Y Babell Awen.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12- All sorts of people - sought poetic tips from him.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15- Even T Llew Jones.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20- Now respectable, he was accepted - back by the Congregationalists.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24- He also established - the Fforddolion Dyfed society.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28- And yet, I don't think he was - accepted totally by everyone.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35- The Last Mile
0:19:41 > 0:19:44- "Sunshine and showers, - blue skies and clouds
0:19:45 > 0:19:49- "A flat mile, a steep mile
0:19:49 > 0:19:51- "Then old age rears its grey head
0:19:51 > 0:19:54- "Like snow lying on a bush
0:19:55 > 0:19:57- "That is our career's short story
0:19:57 > 0:20:00- "Before the fog envelops the ground
0:20:00 > 0:20:03- "Before we leave, to exist no more
0:20:03 > 0:20:05- "On the main road.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13- "Beyond a green and mossy old wall
0:20:13 > 0:20:16- "I can see the acre of eternal peace
0:20:17 > 0:20:19- "And on a sad chapel's misty veil
0:20:20 > 0:20:22- "I see the shadow of a gravestone.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29- "But if your wish is for my race
0:20:29 > 0:20:32- "To reach beyond the veiled dead
0:20:33 > 0:20:36- "Bury me by the roadside
0:20:37 > 0:20:40- "With a milestone above my head."
0:20:56 > 0:20:59- That is our career's short story
0:21:01 > 0:21:03- And then the end came.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07- His friend Jacob Davies - went over to Y Bwthyn.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12- In a drawer, he found the couplet - now inscribed on his gravestone.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16- It suits the poet who wrote odes - to the exile and the storm.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21- Here indeed was a man - who had experienced life's tempest.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30- "Sweet sleep, - after many disappointments
0:21:31 > 0:21:33- "Silence in the wake of a storm."
0:21:40 > 0:21:43- Jacob Davies - describes the funeral very well.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46- "The chapel was half full.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50- "Dewi was buried, as he had lived, - a lonely man.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54- "A few relatives came, - a few friends...
0:21:54 > 0:21:56- "..and a few neighbours.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01- "The self-proclaimed guardians - of Welsh literature and culture...
0:22:01 > 0:22:03- "..were too busy with other things.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07- "They failed to bid farewell - to a princely poet."
0:22:20 > 0:22:25- He once described himself, - accurately, as a choral personality.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29- He was a preacher, a teacher, - a musician and an artist...
0:22:29 > 0:22:31- ..as well as being a poet!
0:22:32 > 0:22:36- With all that complexity, - I don't think he ever settled...
0:22:36 > 0:22:38- ..after he had left Pen-caer.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42- A line he penned himself - sums him up neatly.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45- "Oh! Restless little soul"
0:22:45 > 0:22:51- It's echoed in the closing line - of his famous englyn to the horizon.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58- The measure of a poet - is how his words are remembered.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03- If that's the yardstick, Dewi Emrys - was a very great poet indeed.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07- Ordinary people - will remember Dewi Emrys...
0:23:07 > 0:23:09- ..as a person and as a poet.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13- He had a pure heart. - He was a dear, innocent man.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15- He was Dewi.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21- "Behold, a mirage, - like the rim of a wheel
0:23:21 > 0:23:25- "Around us - A true Wizard's masterpiece
0:23:26 > 0:23:29- "A faraway line that isn't there
0:23:29 > 0:23:33- "An old boundary that never ends."
0:23:56 > 0:23:58- S4C Subtitles by Adnod Cyf.
0:23:58 > 0:23:58- .