1822.] 
known to that of any other country, 
ancient or modern, and which have 
been progressively augmented, by the 
refinement of successive ages, to the 
number of twenty-four. These are all 
dependent on a certain principle of 
alliteral harmony, called eynghanedd, 
which, being peculiar to Welsh pro- 
sody, invests the strains over which it 
presides with certain strange and sin- 
gular features, which I must take a 
more fayourable opportunity of ex- 
plaining. “hh 
Another and a material cause of the 
distinction thus claimed by the Muse 
of Cambria is to be found in the parti- 
cular characteristics of the Welsh 
language itself. Its oriental descent, 
the copious significance of its simple 
terms, with the facilities resulting 
from the combination of these, added 
to the grammatical structure of the 
language, have united to enhance this 
distinction by the various and novel 
sources of rhythmical harmony, which 
they have created, as well bya bre- 
vity and terseness of expression, of 
which no other poetry of the present 
day affords any examples. From this 
concurrence of circumstances it hap- 
pens, that the poetry of Wales, and 
more especially of ancient times, con- 
veys to the ear of a person unacquaint- 
ed with its characteristics something 
unintelligible and obscure. And all 
attempts to explain it through the me- 
dium of a literal translation must ne- 
cessarily prove unsatisfactory, as want- 
ing those aids which give to the 
original the greatest portion of its 
beauty and energy. Nor isit possible, 
even in a poetical version, to preserve 
all the sententious conciseness, with 
the sudden transitions and occasional 
boldness of figurative expression, pe- 
culiar to the Muse of the Cymry. 
You perceive then, my dear Frank, 
that those who would build their no- 
tions of Welsh poetry upon the gene- 
ral poetry of Europe, whether of the 
present or past times, would be likely 
to arrive at a very failacious conclu- 
sion. It has, I may almost affirm, 
nothing in common with the strains of 
other countries, save that inspiration 
which must always to a certain degree 
characterise the effusions of the Muse. 
Yet even in this particular the poets 
of Wales appear to possess features 
peculiarly their own. In vain should 
we attempt to recognize in them the 
uniform sublimity which distinguishes 
Tudor’s Letters on Wales 
303 
the strains of Homer, the unvarying 
majesty and propriety of the Virgilian 
sentiments, or the regular and well- 
sustained flight of Pope’s philosophic 
genius. The genuine characteristics 
of Welsh poetry are of anature essen- 
tially different; not that I mean to 
insinuate, that it is not often pregnant 
with glowing thought, with dignified 
sentiment, with tender feeling, and 
with fine moral sense ; but it rarely, if 
ever, happens, that the Welsh poet 
holds ‘‘the even tenor of his way,” 
in one uninterrupted strain of feeling, 
whether of sublimity or of pathos. It 
is the irregular flash, the corascation, 
of genius, rather than its full and 
steady blaze, that imparts a splendor 
to the awen* of Wales; and hence it is 
that my native country is far more 
likely to supply rivals to Pindar or 
Gray, than to Milton or Lucretius. 
And the lyric excellence of some of 
our bards, especially the more ancient, 
forms a practical illustration of this 
hypothesis. In short the poetry of 
Wales, whatever occasional fire it may 
exhibit, is less the poetry of thought 
than of expression, a peculiarity 
which may-be ascribed to the formal 
strictness of the prosody already al- 
luded to, and to the musical proper- 
ties of the language, which have from 
time immemorial created a sort of na- 
tural aliiance between the songs of the 
bard and the strains of the minstrel. 
Hence arose the national practice of 
singing with the harp, customary 
among the Welsh from the earliest 
times, and which appears to have oc- 
casioned a certain metrical harmony 
to be frequently studied at the ex- 
pense of those loftier aspirations, 
which confer dignity and immortality 
on the effusions of the Muse. 
But, whatever may be the metrical 
singularities of the Cambrian Muse, 
she may lay claim to a more honour- 
able distinction in the scrupulous 
regard which her votaries anciently 
paid to the love of truth. “The truth 
against the world” was. a favourite 
axiom of the bardic institution, on 
which account it. became a predomi- 
nant principle of the poctical produc- 
tions, over which, JI have already 
mentioned, it exercised so great an in- 
fluence, From this cause it has arisen, 
that in matters of history the early 
* Poetical genius; literally, a flow or 
effusion of mind. 
Welsh 
