Waldo Williams

Life

Williams was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. Wales. His father, a primary school teacher from Pembrokeshire, spoke Welsh and his mother spoke English. In his early years he himself spoke only English.

In 1911 his father was appointed headteacher of the primary school at Mynachlog-ddu, Pembrokeshire. and it was there that Waldo Williams learnt to speak Welsh. In 1915 Williams's father moved to be headteacher of Brynconin School, the primary school at Llandissilio, Pembrokeshire.

After attending the Grammar School at Narberth, Pembrokeshire, he studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth where he graduated in English in 1926. Afterwards he trained as a teacher and worked in various schools in Pembrokeshire, the rest of Wales and England, including Kimbolton School, Huntingdonshire. He also taught night classes organised by the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Williams married Linda Llewellyn in 1941, but she died in 1943, and he did not remarry.

He left the Welsh Baptist Church to join the Quakers during the 1950s.

During the Korean War he refused to pay his income tax on pacifist grounds. He continued his protest until the ending of compulsory military service in 1963. During his campaigning he was sent to prison.

He stood as a parliamentary candidate for Plaid Cymru in the Pembrokeshire constituency at the 1959 General Election, when he won 4.32% (2.253) of the votes.

He died in 1971 at St. Thomas's Hospital, Haverfordwest, and is buried at Blaenconin Chapel burial ground in Llandissilio.

Poetry

Williams's poetry shows many influences from William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman to Welsh hymns and the strict alliterative metres of traditional Welsh poetry, known as cynghanedd.

Williams belonged, first of all, to the Welsh tradition of the bardd gwlad (=folk poet), a poet who served his locality by celebrating its life and people in verse.

But he was also a poet inspired by the mystic revelation he had as a youth about the unity of the whole of humankind. This revelation was realised in the cooperative and harmonious living he witnessed amongst the farming communities in the Preseli Hills and reflected in feelings of belonging, knowing, and a desire that people should live together in peace – constant themes in his poetry. It inspired some of his greatest poetry, including Mewn dau gae (=In two fields) (1956), perhaps his greatest poem of all, which celebrates the very moment of this revelation.

Other well-known poems by Williams include Cofio (=Remembering) (before 1936), Y tangnefeddwyr (=The peacemakers) (1941), Preseli (1946), and Pa beth yw dyn? (=What is it to be human?) (1952).

Important events in Williams's life

Waldo Williams memorial, Rhos-fach, Mynachlog-ddu.

Published works

Dail pren (=The leaves of the tree), 1956, was the only volume of poetry published by Williams during his lifetime. A new edition was published in 1991 by Gwasg Gomer, ISBN.

Cerddi Waldo Williams (=The poems of Waldo Williams), 1992, a selection of his poetry edited by J. E. Caerwyn Williams.

Waldo Williams: rhyddiaith (=Waldo Williams: prose), 2001, a selection of his prose writings edited by Damian Walford Davies. Includes writing in both Welsh and English.

Cerddi'r plant (=Poems for children), 1936, a volume of poetry including the work of Williams and E. Llwyd Williams.

The old farmhouse, 1961, Williams's translation of Yr hen dy ffarm by D. J. Williams (1953).

Translations of his work

A significant collection of his poems have been translated into English by Tony Conran. His work has also been notably translated by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, and Joseph P. Clancy.