R. Williams Parry

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Robert Williams Parry
Tal-y-sarn, Gwynedd, Wales
Died4 January 1956(1956-01-04) (aged 71)
Bethesda, Gwynedd, Wales[1]

Robert Williams Parry (6 March 1884 – 4 January 1956) was one of Wales's most notable 20th-century poets writing in Welsh.

Life

R. Williams Parry was born in

Cardiff High School for Boys in 1916. Parry served in the army from 1916 to 1918, returning on demobilization to Cardiff, and in 1921 was appointed headmaster of Oakley Park School in Montgomeryshire. He left early in 1922 having been appointed a lecturer in the Welsh and Extra-Mural Studies Departments at the university college in Bangor, where he remained until his retirement in 1944.[3] After his marriage in 1923 he lived in Bethesda, Gwynedd.[4]

Work

A llonydd gorffenedig/ Yw llonydd y Lôn Goed
The peace of Lôn Goed Is perfect peace (Verse from the poem "Eifionydd" on a sign in Gwynedd.

Parry earned widespread recognition as a poet when he won the

National Eisteddfod for his poem "Yr Haf" ('The Summer'), which has been described as "the best known and admired of all the eisteddfod awdlau
of the 20th century". He published two collections of poetry: Yr Haf a cherddi eraill (1924) and Cerddi'r Gaeaf (1952).

Some of his most notable works include "Y Llwynog" ('The Fox'), "Eifionydd" and "Englynion coffa Hedd Wyn". In the latter he uses the traditional four-line verse or englyn and cynghanedd to lament the death of the poet Hedd Wyn (Ellis Humphrey Evans) at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Hedd Wyn was posthumously awarded the chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales; Parry, three years Hedd Wyn's senior, was himself a major influence on his contemporary.

"The chair ... today stretching out its arms in a long peace of silence for the one who hasn't come."

There is a short biography and appreciation of Parry's work by his cousin, Sir Thomas Parry, in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography.[5]

Bibliography

Books by R. Williams Parry

  • Yr Haf a cherddi eraill (1924)
  • Cerddi'r Gaeaf (1952)

References

  1. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/55458. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ "The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography". yba.llgc.org.uk.
  3. ^ "PARRY, ROBERT WILLIAMS (1884–1956), poet, university lecturer | Dictionary of Welsh Biography".
  4. ^ Bethesda - Oxford Reference Retrieved 23/5/3023.
  5. ^ "The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography". yba.llgc.org.uk.

External links

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