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Ever since the appearance of A.G.Prys-Jones’s Welsh Poets in 1917, and particularly after Keidrych Rhys’s Modern Welsh Poetry in 1944, the progress of Welsh writing in English has been marked by anthologies which attempt to catch the Zeitgeist and to lay down a canon of writers who merit serious attention. Inevitably, however perceptive the editor, the net misses some important writers and scoops up others who expire shortly after the catch is landed, never to be heard from again.
Richard Gwyn has not tried to produce an ‘official’ anthology and has erred in favour of the up-and-coming, setting aside almost all the best poets under forty of the present time and taking risks by including a few minnows who, I fear, will not make it to shore. That does not mean he hasn’t produced a lively and readable anthology with some good poems in it by poets who will doubtless go on and produce even more impressive work.
What bothers this reader is the anthology’s sub-title: 'Welsh World Poetry’. It may be meant, as the blurb suggests, as ambiguous and half-ironic, but from the editor’s preface I don’t think so. This book is intended to be by what are known in some quarters as ‘international’ writers, and the Welsh element in their work is played down in favour of its American qualities. In fact, if many of these poems had appeared in anthologies of American, or English, verse, no one would have suspected they were from Wales. This is a phase through which Welsh writing in English is going at the moment and one can only hope that it will not last long. I am not against foreign influences on our poets, but to argue, as does the editor, that to be Welsh in subject-matter or style is not to be ‘international’ seems to me a bit of vapid posturing.
The most impressive poets in this book, in my judgement, are David Greenslade, Landeg White, Graham Hartill, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, Zoë Skoulding, Sarah Corbett and Owen Sheers.
Richard Gwyn has made a lively and provocative selection which reflects the vigour and scope of one aspect of Welsh writing at the present moment and gives a useful platform to a new generation of poets who need this kind of promotion. Time will tell how many will make it to land and how many will gasp their last in the next few years or so. The same can be said of just about every anthology since 1917.
Meic Stephens
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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