"The Wind" (Welsh: Y Gwynt) is a 64-line love poem in the form of a cywydd by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. Dafydd is widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, [1] [2] [3] [4] and this is one of his most highly praised works. Rachel Bromwich called it "one of the greatest of all his poems", [5] while the academic critic Andrew Breeze has hailed it as "a masterpiece" and "a work of genius", noting especially its "rhetorical splendour". [6]
The poet opens by addressing the wind, calling it a strange being, going where it wills, and subject to none of the physical or legal restraints of ordinary human life. After praising it for its power the poet goes on to compare it to an author, a sower of leaves, and a jester. Then he asks the wind to visit Uwch Aeron [the northern part of Ceredigion, from where Parth[ clarification needed ] came], [7] and, paying no heed to her husband Bwa Bach [7] to visit the poet's lover Morfudd, on whose account he is an exile from his native land. The wind is to send the poet's sighs to Morfudd, to assure her of his continued love, and to return safely. [8]
"The Wind" shows great inventiveness in its choice of metaphors and similes, while employing extreme metrical complexity. [9] It is one of the classic examples [10] [11] of the use of what has been called "a guessing game technique" [12] or "riddling", [13] a technique known in Welsh as dyfalu, comprising the stringing together of imaginative and hyperbolic similes and metaphors. Sometimes Dafydd used dyfalu pejoratively; less often, as in this poem, to express his wonder at one of the great forces of nature. [14] The display of Dafydd's virtuosity in this technique has been seen as his prime motivation for writing the poem. [15]
Lines 9–24 of the poem all begin with the letter N, and in the succeeding 14 lines a similar use is made of the letters R, S, D, and finally H. Dafydd took this poetic device, known as cymeriad, from the older poetic form of awdl , a kind of poem much used by court poets of the preceding centuries for poems of praise addressed to their patrons. He employed it in several of his cywyddau. [16]
"The Wind" is cast in a form closely associated with Dafydd, the poem in which a messenger or llatai, usually a bird or animal, is sent to the poet's lover. [17] It is a good example of how Dafydd's works in this form can include a close and warmly-appreciative description of a llatai, even when, as is often the case in Dafydd's poems, he is describing nature in one of its harsher aspects. [5] [18] The careering course of the wind is embodied in the headlong pace of the poem. [19] Rachel Bromwich called "The Wind" one of "the outstanding expressions of Dafydd's wonder and awe at the mysteries of the cosmic forces", but pointed out that in the end Dafydd curbs this force to act as a love-messenger to Morfudd. [20] The poet Gwyneth Lewis sees the poem as "a hymn to the havoc that art can work in the world", [19] while for the scholar Helen Fulton the wind is a metaphor for "freedom and autonomy from the laws of governing society". [21] This political aspect of the poem is particularly apparent in lines 19–22 (13–16 in some editions):
…though you winnow leaves
no one indicts you, you are not restrained
by any swift troop, nor officer's hand
nor blue blade… [22]
This has been interpreted as an implicit comparison with the king's official messengers, who were immune from legal consequences should they trample their way through standing crops in the line of duty. [20] Andrew Breeze finds in these same lines a reminder that Dafydd was living in a land occupied by foreigners. [23] On the other hand, for Anthony Conran the freedom celebrated in the poem is an essentially personal one, the expression of his own ungovernable character. [24] Likewise Richard Morgan Loomis sees the wind as Dafydd's "glorious alter-ego", the poem being "the paradoxical fantasy of a frustration that would speak through an uncontrollable freedom". [25]
There are some verbal resemblances between this poem and "The Song of the Wind", a poem found in the Book of Taliesin: Taliesin, or whoever was that poem's author, describes the wind as a "powerful creature" without foot or head, flesh or bone, while Dafydd calls it a "strange being…without foot or wing". This strongly suggests to some scholars that Dafydd knew the older poem, [26] [27] though in recent years doubt has been cast on this line of argument. [21] Andrew Breeze finds, in a passage describing the wind in Jean de Meun's continuation of the Roman de la Rose , no less than 16 motifs which also appear in Dafydd's poem, though re-arranged and re-imagined. He concludes that Dafydd is likely to have known and been influenced by the Roman de la Rose. [28] An analogue to Dafydd's use of the wind as a llatai has been pointed out in the Middle English lyric "Blow, northerne wind, send thou me my sweting", one of the Harley Lyrics collected in a manuscript dated c. 1320. [29] A passage from Iolo's cywydd "The Ploughman" in which the ploughman is defined by the faults he is not guilty of, with the implication that those in authority do, can be compared with the section of "The Wind" in which a series of similar negative statements covertly accuses English law officers of oppressive practices. [30]
The 15th-century poet Maredudd ap Rhys wrote a cywydd on the wind which shows several similarities with the poem of his predecessor Dafydd; certainly more than can be accounted for by coincidence. For example, Dafydd writes
Such as you none can stay,
Nor fire burn nor guile betray,
Nor water drown; vain the quest
Your bodiless being to arrest.
And similarly Maredudd has
Wave cannot drown thee, nor fire molest,
Man's eye behold, men's force arrest. [31]
Dafydd ap Gwilym is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Dafydd’s poetry also offers a unique window into the transcultural movement of cultural practices and preservation of culture in the face of occupation. Dafydd also helps answer questions that linger over the spread of culture. Even though it has been given less attention, cultural development in Wales differed slightly than in other parts of Europe during the same time.
"His Shadow" is a poem in the form of a cywydd by the 14th-century bard Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely considered the greatest of the Welsh poets. It relates a conversation in which the poet defends his character from the insinuations of his own shadow, and it parodies a popular medieval genre in which the Soul remonstrates with the Body. It has been argued that "His Shadow" was written towards the end of Daydd's poetic career. It was accepted in the 2007 edition of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems by Dafydd Johnston et al. as a genuine work of his; previously, Thomas Parry had included it in his 1952 edition of Dafydd's works and in his Oxford Book of Welsh Verse (1962) as genuine, though in 1985 he expressed some doubts as to Dafydd's authorship.
"The Girls of Llanbadarn", or "The Ladies of Llanbadarn", is a short, wryly humorous poem by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, in which he mocks his own lack of success with the girls of his neighbourhood. Dafydd is widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, and this is one of his best-known works. The poem cannot be precisely dated, but was perhaps written in the 1340s.
"The Seagull" is a love poem in 30 lines by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, probably written in or around the 1340s. Dafydd is widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, and this is one of his best-known and best-loved works.
"Trouble at a Tavern", or "Trouble at an Inn", is a short poem by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, in which the poet comically narrates the mishaps which prevent him from keeping a midnight assignation with a girl. Dafydd is widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, and this is one of his best-known poems. It has been described as "glorious farce", "one of Dafydd ap Gwilym's funniest and most celebrated cywyddau", and "the most vivid of [his] poems of incident".
"Owain Glyndŵr's Court", also known as "Sycharth" or "The Court of Owain Glyndŵr at Sycharth", is a cywydd by the Welsh bard Iolo Goch. It describes and celebrates the hall and household of his patron, the nobleman Owain Glyndŵr, at Sycharth in Powys. It cannot be dated exactly, but was probably written about 1390, before Glyndŵr's revolt against the English crown. It survives in as many as 24 manuscripts.
"The Poet's Burial for Love" or "The Poet's Burial" is a Welsh-language love poem in the form of a cywydd in which the poet foresees his own death from unrequited love. It was formerly attributed to the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, but in 1952 was rejected from the canon of his works by Dafydd's editor, Thomas Parry and is now widely considered to be a 15th-century poem of uncertain authorship. The poem has nevertheless remained very popular with translators and it continues to appear in anthologies, including Thomas Parry's own Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.
"The Ruin" is a cywydd by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets. In it the poet, considering a ruined house and remembering the love-affair he once conducted there, reflects on the transience of all worldly pleasures. "The Ruin" is commonly supposed to have been written in Dafydd's old age. It has been called one of his most poignant poems, and it was included in The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse, The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse, The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English and The Longman Anthology of British Literature.
"The Poet and the Grey Friar" is a satirical poem in the form of a traethodl by the 14th-century Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh-language poets. In it he relates an imaginary conversation with a Franciscan friar in which, rejecting the ascetic philosophy of the friar, he sets out a defence of love, poetry and the worldly life. It was included in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse.
"The Snow" is a 14th- or 15th-century Welsh-language poem in the form of a cywydd evoking a landscape which, to the poet's chagrin, is covered with snow. It has been described as an imaginative tour de force. Manuscripts of the poem mostly attribute it to Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, though some name Dafydd ab Edmwnd or Ieuan ap Rhys ap Llywelyn as the author. Modern literary historians have differed as to whether it is indeed by Dafydd ap Gwilym, but the two most recent editions of his poems have rejected it. The poem has nevertheless remained popular with translators and it continues to appear in anthologies, including Thomas Parry's own Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and Gwyn Jones's Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English.
"The Woodland Mass" or "The Mass of the Grove" is a poem in the form of a cywydd by the 14th-century bard Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets. It is one of his most popular works. Sometimes seen as blasphemous, it presents a woodland scene in which a thrush, sent by the poet's lover, and a nightingale officiate at a Mass celebrating both God and sexual love. "The Woodland Mass" is an example of a common type of medieval Welsh poem in which some bird or beast is used as a llatai or love-messenger, though this poem is unusual in that the message is sent to Dafydd rather than by him.
"The Mirror" is a poem in the form of a cywydd by the 14th-century bard Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets. The poem describes how Dafydd, languishing with lovesickness for an unnamed Gwynedd woman, is appalled by the wasted appearance of his face in the mirror. "The Mirror" can be grouped with several other of Dafydd's poems, possibly early ones, set in Gwynedd, or alternatively with the many poems in which he expresses his love for a woman he calls Morfudd. It has been called "perhaps Dafydd's greatest masterpiece in the genre of self-deprecation".
"To the Yew Tree Above Dafydd ap Gwilym's Grave" is a 14th-century Welsh-language poem in the form of a cywydd, and is usually seen as either an elegy written after the death of Dafydd ap Gwilym or a mock-elegy addressed to him during his lifetime. Its author, Gruffudd Gryg, also wrote another elegy or mock-elegy on his friend Dafydd, and conducted a controversy in verse with him in which Dafydd's poems were criticised and defended. The cywydd on the yew tree constitutes the main evidence for the widespread belief that Dafydd is buried at Strata Florida Abbey in Ceredigion. It has been called "a superb poem, perhaps Gruffudd Gryg's best...a remarkably sensitive and perceptive act of poetic homage that acknowledges, far more than any more direct statement ever could, Dafydd's status as a true athro for his generation". It was included in both The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and The Penguin Book of Welsh Verse.
"Lament for Lleucu Llwyd" is a Middle Welsh poem by the 14th-century bard Llywelyn Goch ap Meurig Hen in the form of a cywydd. It is his most famous work, and has been called one of the finest of all cywyddau and one of the greatest of all Welsh-language love-poems, comparable with the best poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym. The culmination of a series of poems addressed to his lover Lleucu Llwyd, a married woman, it differs from them in calling her forth from her grave as if he were a more conventional lover serenading her as she lies in bed. The effect is said to be "startling, original, but in no way grotesque". "Lament for Lleucu Llwyd" was included in both The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse and The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English.
"Y Llafurwr", known in English as "The Ploughman" or "The Labourer", is a poem in the form of a cywydd by the 14th-century Welsh poet Iolo Goch. Often compared with William Langland's Middle English Piers Plowman, it presents a sympathetic portrayal of the meek and godly ploughman; no other Welsh bardic poem takes an ordinary working man as its subject. It has been called the most notable of Iolo's poems, comparable with the finest works of Dafydd ap Gwilym, and its popularity in the Middle Ages can be judged from the fact that it survives in seventy-five manuscripts. It is included in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.
Wiliam Llŷn was a Welsh-language poet whose work largely consists of elegies and praise-poems. He is considered the last major Welsh poet of the bardic tradition, comparable to the greatest late-medieval Welsh poets, and has been called Wales's supreme elegist. Two of his poems are included in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.
"The Maypole" or "To a Birch Tree", known in Welsh as "I'r fedwen", "Y fedwen yn bawl haf", or "Y fedwen las anfadwallt", is a cywydd by the mid-14th century bard Gruffudd ab Adda; it is one of only three poems of his that have survived. It was formerly attributed to the pre-eminent Welsh-language poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym. The poem presents the unhappy fate of a woodland birch tree which has been chopped down and re-erected in the town of Llanidloes as a maypole, then with pathetic irony asks the tree to choose between its former existence and its present one. Dancing round a maypole was a popular recreation in medieval Welsh towns, and this poem is the first record of it. "The Maypole" has been praised by literary historians as one of the very finest of Welsh cywyddau, and was included in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.
"The Magpie's Advice" or "The Magpie's Counsel" is a poem in the form of a cywydd by the pre-eminent Welsh-language poet, Dafydd ap Gwilym. The poet portrays himself as an overage lover who bemoans his romantic woes as he wanders through the woods, and is rebuked by a magpie who bids him concern himself with matters more befitting his years. It can be read either as a comic and self-mocking reversal of the traditional Welsh poetic trope of the non-human messenger, or llatai, being sent to the poet's lover, or as a meditation on the contrast between the yearly cycle of renewal in the natural world and the linear ageing of men, which falsifies any simplistic identification we may make with nature. It has always been one of Dafydd's more popular poems, surviving in 55 manuscripts and being widely translated in the 20th and 21st centuries. Sir Thomas Parry included it in his Oxford Book of Welsh Verse.
"The Wave" is a Welsh-language cywydd by the mid 14th-century poet Gruffudd Gryg. It is a llatai poem, which is to say one in which an animal or inanimate object is sent bearing a message of love. In this case an ocean wave is sent by the poet's beloved in Anglesey, and reaches him as he returns by ship from a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. It is thought to have been written in or about the 1370s. "The Wave" is a widely acclaimed poem, and has been compared favourably with the finest poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym, who is often considered the greatest of the Welsh poets.
"The Dream" is a medieval Welsh poem in the form of a cywydd. Though it is included in both of the modern editions of the works of Dafydd ap Gwilym, widely seen as the greatest of the Welsh poets, it is not typical of his work and doubts have been expressed as to his authorship. The poet's dream is an allegorical one about hunting a white doe in which the doe represents the woman he loves. The large number of manuscripts and of English translations testify to its popularity through the centuries.