Hiraeth for Anglesey: Goronwy Owen
Richard Wyn Jones receives more of his native region’s literary history in this episode as we discuss, Goronwy Owen, Anglesey’s most famous poet. We suggest that the literary ideals of the Morris circle are seen most clearly in the poetry of ‘Dark-haired Goronwy’, for his mastery of the strict metres realized to a great extent the desire to bring back the stands of the medieval Welsh bards.
And as we explain the aesthetics driving much of his work, we offer a definition of ‘Augustanism’ (with an eye to the book which Saunders Lewis published in 1924). We contrast the finely-crafted poems expressing his hiraeth or longing for Anglesey with the fact that he never returned to Wales after leaving, first to follow a career in the Church in England and ending his life in America as the owner of a tobacco plantation and four slaves. We also discuss the influence which his poetry would have on the eisteddfod movement of the following century.