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Setting out to prove that the Welsh bardic tradition 'is not, and never has been, exclusively male', the editors of this book found themselves confronted not by a dearth, but rather an excess of material. Twentieth-century voices occupy more than half of their 400 pages, but that still leaves plenty of space for poets from the previous four and a half centuries.
Gwerful Mechain dominates the early pages. As passionate about y cedor (the vagina) as about Jesus Christ, Mechain shows that for poets of her time there was no necessary gulf between love of the earthly and love of the divine. No other contributor can match her range.
Things then quieten down. By the time we get to the mid-seventeenth century, the 'female aesthetic' in the work of Katherine Philips ('The Matchless Orinda') is most evident in a lively little poem warning women against marriage (Philips herself married soon after). A century later, Ann Julia Hatton laments the non-existence of honest men and slips into male persona in order to pen a poem about carnal desire. Jane Cave dryly describes wedlock as 'a lottery contest'. Welsh-language poets, meanwhile, led by the radiantly passionate Ann Griffiths, are writing poems of religious devotion that testify to the dominance of Nonconformity.
In the nineteenth century, Felicia Hemans, damned as a 'poetess' by the editors, gets only two poems. More interesting are Maria James, a working-class woman who was taken to America as a child and laments the loss of her mother-tongue, and Emily Jane Pfeiffer, who writes in praise of 'odalisques' - slaves.
The twentieth century selection holds no surprises in either language. Among the Welsh-language poets are Nest Lloyd, Nesta Wyn Jones, Einir Jones, Menna Elfyn, Elin ap Hywel and Elin Llwyd Morgan; among the Anglos are Lynette Roberts, Brenda Chamberlain, Jean Earle, Gillian Clarke, Hilary Llewellyn Williams and Deryn Rees Jones. Gwyneth Lewis is represented only by poems in English, which seems a missed opportunity. Sheenagh Pugh, consistent as ever, refused to allow her poems to appear.
Translations from the Welsh, with the exception of Ann Griffiths and Menna Elfyn, are by Katie Gramich. She is most secure with free verse. Formal Welsh poetry, cynghanedd, rich and rhyming both on and off the beat, is notoriously difficult to do justice to, and Gramich allows herself great freedom as regards sense and rhythm. The shortcomings of her approach are apparent in poems such as Gwerful's 'Dioddefaint Crist' ('Christ's Suffering') where, for example, the taut 'Goreudduw gwiw a rodded / Ar bren croes i brynu Cred' slackens into the singsong 'Christ immaculate, due to our vanity, / Was nailed to the cross to redeem humanity.' Perhaps only Gerard Manley Hopkins can get away with triple rhymes in serious poems.
Richard Poole
It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.
Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.
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