'Here is a volume that can be enthusiastically recommended as
being academically refreshing, and a significant contribution
to the long- awaited reorientation of literature out of the Slough
of Despond . . . ' (Fairacres Chronicle)
'Here is a volume that can be enthusiastically recommended as
being academically refreshing, and a significant contribution
to the long- awaited reorientation of literature out of the Slough
of Despond . . . ' (Fairacres Chronicle)
'Readers who have no Welsh will be introduced, with enthusiasm and discernment, to a selection of poems from the Middle Ages to the present...It is this book's special bonus that the author's enthusiasm, learning and goodness is plain to see on every page. It is, in a real sense, a book of enlightenment.' (Book News Wales)
' . . . for its many valuable insights this book deserves to succeed in its aim of revealing to an English readership one strand of a literary tradition of astonishing resilience and richness.' (Times Literary Supplement)
The author explores the theme of praise in the Welsh poetic tradition. He reveals a remarkable persistence in the appearance of this theme in writings ranging from the ninth century to the present day. The first part of the book gives an introductory overview of the tradition while the second part offers more detailed studies of aspects of this theme. Particular attention is given to the eighteenth-century works of Ann Griffiths and Williams Pantycelyn but there is also much illuminating discussion of twentieth-century writers including Saunders Lewis, Gwenallt, Waldo Williams, Euros Bowen, Bobi Jones and Gwyn Thomas. In these studies the author develops contrasts and comparisons between the Welsh tradition and those of other nations and thus enables us to perceive its specific quality in a European and international context.