A Welsh Testament Analysis

From "Ten Contemporary Poets" compiled and edited by Maurice Wollman, Harrap 1963All right, I was Welsh. Does it matter?

I spoke a tongue that was passed on

To me in the place I happened to be,

A place huddled between grey walls

Of cloud for at least half the year.

My word for heaven was not yours.

The word for hell had a sharp edge

Put on it by the hand of the wind

Honing, honing with a shrill sound

Day and night. Nothing that Glyn Dwr

Knew was armour against the rain's

Missiles. What was descent from him?Even God had a Welsh name:

He spoke to him in the old language;

He was to have a peculiar care

For the Welsh people. History showed us

He was too big to be nailed to the wall

Of a stone chapel, yet still we crammed him

Between the boards of a black book.Yet men sought us despite this.

My high cheek-bones, my length of skull

Drew them as to a rare portrait

By a dead master. I saw them stare

From their long cars, as I passed knee-deep

In ewes and wethers. I saw them stand

By the thorn hedges, watching me string

The far flocks on a shrill whistle.

And always there was their eyes; strong

Pressure on me: You are Welsh, they said;

Speak to us so; keep your fields free

Of the smell of petrol, the loud roar

Of hot tractors; we must have peace

And quietness.Is a museum

Peace? I asked. Am I the keeper

Of the heart's relics, blowing the dust

In my own eyes? I am a man;

I never wanted the drab role

Life assigned me, an actor playing

To the past's audience upon a stage

Of earth and stone; the absurd label

Of birth, of race hanging askew

About my shoulders. I was in prison

Until you came; your voice was a key

Turning in the enormous lock

Of hopelessness. Did the door open

To let me out or yourselves in?

.: :.

poem analysis

In my opinion the poet begins the first stanza in an aggressive manner. ‘All right I was Welsh. Does it matter…’ the writer makes the reader think that being welsh was not important as Welsh people thought. What did it matter if he was welsh? He is not different from anyone else. ‘A place huddles between grey walls of cloud…’ he makes it sound as if he is trapped in his own culture. He enclosed from other cultures and the world around him. Enclosed by the grey walls. The language was not taught to him by choice, but because of his heritage.
The line ‘my word for heaven was not yours’ has two meanings. One being that the actual word was not the same, the other being that the idea of heaven was not ht same. The poet has a much wider view of the world and believes that the Welsh people are narrow minded. This is described further in the first line of the second stanza. Then the poet says ‘even god had a welsh name.’ he thinks that god is a universal image and not to be labelled by the Welsh language or any other.
‘History showed us he was too big to be nailed to the chapel yet still we crammed him between boards of a black book.’ I think this sentence is meaningful in a religious sense and is also a criticism of the Welsh. The black book represents the bible and how God is crammed/ restricted between the pages.
The last stanza reads ‘Am I the keeper of the hearts relics, blowing dust in my own eyes?’ the poet is saying the hearts relics is his own tradition and he has to keep on the tradition form dying out. Is the dust representing ignorance? Or his need to see past his fellow Welshmen. The dust is blocking his view.
‘The absurd label of birth, of race hanging askew about my shoulders’ the pet considers the label put upon him (welsh) is absurd. The race hanging upon his shoulders is a massive weight he carries with him.
‘I was in prison until you came’ he was trapped in his own culture and country. ‘Your voice was a key turning in the enormous lock of hopelessness’ who is the poet describing? Who is the voice? He describes Wales as an enormous lock of hopelessness. ‘Did the door open to let me out…’ is he finally free from the weight of his race? ‘Or yourselves in? Who are these people? He is relieved to be mixing with other cultures and attitudes.
This whole poem is about labels, expectations and his patriotic views of Wales. The religious theme ism carried on throughout the poem, first started by its title.

By Rachael Roberts, North Wales
03/01/06
Aged 15


| Posted on 2006-01-03 | by Approved Guest