POETRY
From Taliesin, the 6th century Celtic poet, to Dylan Thomas, Wales has inspired poetry and song. Every August, at the Royal National Eisteddfod, thousands gather to compete as singers, musicians and poets, or to listen and learn. In the small town of Llangollen, there is an International Music Eisteddfod for a week every July
There are a few mentions of local places in the following poetry. Porth Ceiriad Bay
by Benjamin Jonson1572-1637
Descended to the shore, odd how we left
the young girl with us to herself, and went
straight to examine the stratified cliffs,
forgot her entirely in our interest.
You marvelled at the shapes the clockwork sea
had worn the stone, talking keenly, until
the pace of this random sculpture recalled
your age to you, and then its anodynes.
And so you turned, pretending youth, courting
the girl as if you were a boy again,
leaving the wry cliffs to their erosion
and me to my observant solitude.
Abersoch
By Josephine Wilde, Wilmslow, Cheshire
There's a little place called Abersoch, along the North Wales coast.
The road to it meanders round a bay,
In spring and summer, world arrives,
Abersoch plays host, to many thousand visitors every day.
White cottages fleck green hills, shells deck sunkissed sands,
Music drifts from hired beach huts, played by city bands.
In autumn as the leaves turn gold, world has gone back home,
Six hundred villagers leave their cots bare feet tread wild sea foam.
They walk the still warm beaches, breathe in the salt tinged air,
World has freed the sea from boats, coves lie still and bare.
In winter when the days are short, few cars drive to the bay,
Snowdon's mountain range is white, with more snow on the way.
Hearths burn bright with Welsh black coal, male voice choirs sing clear,
When daffodils pierce frozen earth, world will be back here.
The following is a comical 19th century poem about an English judge trying to sort out Welsh surnames as part of the "anglicization" process
How Welsh surnames came to be...
Then strove the judge with main and might
The surrounding consonants to write
But when the day was almost gone
He found his work not nearly done.
His ears assailed most woefully
With names like Rhys ap Griffith Ddu,
Aneirin, Iorweth, Ieuan Goch,
And Llwyarch Hen o Abersoch,
Taleiesin ap Llewelyn Fawr
And Llun ap Arthur bach y Cawr.
Until at lenght, in sheer despair,
He doffed his wig and tore his hair
And said he would no longer stand
The surnames of our native land.
"Take ten," he said, "and call them Rice,"
"Take another ten and call them Price."
"Take fifty others, call them Pughs,"
"A hundred more--I'll dub them Hughes."
"Now Roberts name some hundred score,"
"And Williams name a legion more."
"And call," he said in disdained tones,
"Call the remaining thousands Jones."
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