Dechreuwn yn y bennod hon drwy ystyried rhywbeth y mae llawer ohonom yng Nghymru’n ei gymryd yn ganiataol, sef y gwahaniaeth rhwng canu caeth Cymraeg a chanu rhydd.

Awgrymwn fod agweddau cymdeithasol ac ideolegol ar y gwahaniaeth mydryddol sylfaenol hwn. Canolbwyntiwn ar farddoniaeth rydd a gyfansoddwyd yn yr unfed ganrif ar bymtheg ac ar ddechrau’r ganrif nesaf ac mae trafod dau fath o fesur rhydd yn fodd i ni ystyried cwestiynau mawr yn ymwneud â’r berthynas (a’r gwahaniaeth) rhwng yr hen a’r newydd ac y ‘brodorol’ a’r ‘estron’. Nodwn fod lleisiau barddol benywaidd yn ymddangos yn y corff newydd hwn o farddoniaeth ac edrychwn yn fanwl ar gerdd angerddol sy’n protestio’n erbyn dadgoedwigo cymoedd y De (ac sy’n rhoi’r bai am y dinistr ecolegol hwn ar ‘y Saeson’).

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Episode 49

Love, Protest and the Ideology of Meter: the Free-Meter Poetry

We begin in this episode by considering something many of us in Wales take for granted, namely the difference between Welsh-language strict-meter poetry and free-meter poetry.

We suggested that there are social and ideological dimensions to this fundamental metrical difference. We concentrate on free-meter poetry composed during the sixteenth century and early in the following century and discussing the two kinds of free-meter verse provides an opportunity to consider big questions concerning the relationship (and difference) between the old and the new and the ‘native’ and the ‘foreign’. We note that female voices appear in this new body of poetry and we look at a poem which protests passionately against the deforestation of the valleys of South Wales (and which puts the blame on ‘the English’ for this ecological destruction).

Cyflwynwyd gan: Yr Athro Jerry Hunter a'r Athro Richard Wyn Jones

Cynhyrchwyd gan: Richard Martin

Cerddoriaeth: 'Might Have Done' gan The Molenes

Darllen Pellach / Further Reading:

- Brinley Rees, Dulliau’r Canu Rhydd 1500-1650 (1952).

- Cennard Davies, ‘Early Free-Meter Poetry’ a Nesta Lloyd, ‘Late Free-Meter Poetry’ yn R. Geraint Gruffydd (gol.), A guide to Welsh literature c.1530-1700 (1997).

- Christine James, ‘Coed Glyn Cynon’, yn Hywel Teifi Edwards (gol.), Cwm Cynon (1997).