Rydym ni’n gorffen trafod yr emynydd mawr yn y bennod hon trwy ofyn cwestiwn a fydd o bosib yn annisgwyl i’r rhan fwyaf o’n dilynwyr, sef a oedd Pantycelyn yn fardd diofal? Dyfynnwn nifer o ysgolheigion o’r ugeinfed ganrif sy’n awgrymu hyn, gan gynnwys Saunders Lewis a ddywedodd nad oedd William Williams yn parchu geiriau o gwbl. Ac wrth ystyried perthynas y bardd â’r iaith Gymraeg awn ni i drafod ei berthynas â’r traddodiad barddol Cymraeg gan bwysleisio y byddai’n well ei gweld ar un olwg fel diffyg perthynas.

Nodwn wrth fynd heibio bod barddoniaeth Gymraeg y ddeunawfed ganrif yn amrywiol iawn a bod llawer o wahanol feirdd wrthi yn y cyfnod yn defnyddio’r hen fesurau caeth, er bod Pantycelyn wedi anwybyddu’r gynghanedd yn gyfan gwbl. A yw’n bosib felly dweud mai ef oedd y bardd modern cyntaf yng Nghymru?

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A Careless Poet?: Williams Pantycelyn (3)

We finish discussing the great hymnist in this episode by asking a question which might come as a surprise to most of our listeners, namely, was Pantycelyn a careless poet? We quote a number of twentieth-century scholars we suggest that, including Saunders Lewis who said that William Williams did not respect words at all. And while considering the poet’s relationship with the Welsh language we discuss his relationship with the Welsh poetic tradition, emphasizing that it is perhaps best to see it as the lack of a relationship.

We note in passing that Welsh poetry of the eighteenth century is characterized by a great deal of variety and that many different poets in the period were using the old traditional metres, although Pantycelyn ignored cynghanedd completely. Is it thus possible to say that he was the first modern poet in Wales?

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:

- Saunders Lewis, Williams Pantycelyn (1927 [adargraffiad 1991]).