Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Poetry 1900-2000: A G Prys-Jones

This is the third in the series of poets' lives taken from the profiles Meic Stephens gives us as a taster in Poetry 1900-2000. The anthology will be celebrated on 22 April at the London Welsh Centre: details here.

Arthur Glyn Prys Jones was born in Denbigh in 1888 and moved to Pontypridd aged nine. He went to Llandovery College and Jesus College Oxford and became a teacher in History and English and a schools inspector. A president in the 1970s of the (Welsh) Academi Cymraeg, he was the first Welsh poet of 20th Century writing in English who was inspired by his nationality and used it as a source of pride and inspiration. His poetry is written in the simple metrical style of Welsh lyrical poetry; a freer form is used when dealing with the people and landscape of Wales. He also wrote comic verse.

I heard her trysting call fall through the trees
Within the primrose wood where Merlin flings
His saffron mantle to the daffodils.
Text: Fraser Cains

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