Author : Taliesin Jones
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (616 download)
Book Synopsis A Survey of Anglo-Welsh Poetry by : Taliesin Jones
Download or read book A Survey of Anglo-Welsh Poetry written by Taliesin Jones and published by . This book was released on 1949 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From the defeat of Llewelyn by Mortimer in 1284 until the union with England in 1536 the Welsh had continued proudly to regard themselves as an independent nation. Conquered many times in battle, the Welsh chieftains had always withdrawn to their mountain retreats, where pursuit and decisive overthrow had been impossible. Even in defeat such a chieftain as Owen Glyndwr was able to communicate to his people a clear vision of their future as an independent nation. Indeed [...]these Welsh people regarded such a losing battle as a spiritual triumph, and they were never less united to England than in such defeat. The Act of Union was designed to eradicate this Welsh isolation, to transform Wales into a part of England for all political and administrative purposes. In spite of the failures of the past, the authors of the Act had reason to be confident of its success. The great Welsh landowners had already identified themselves with the cause of Henry Tudor, and had become thoroughly Anglicised. Some of them, like William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, continued to use the Welsh language when speaking to their tenants, but for the most part they were English in thought and speech. The influence of such men was expected to bring about the easy overthrow of Welsh institutions. For a while, certainly, this apparent overthrow of the ideals of Welsh independence, seemed to have an atrophysing effect on Welsh poetry, which entered on one of the leanest periods in its history.[...]" --