Robert Williams Parry | |
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| Born | 6 March 1884 Tal-y-sarn, Gwynedd, Wales |
| Died | 4 January 1956(1956-01-04) (aged 71) |
Robert Williams Parry (6 March 1884 – 4 January 1956) was one ofWales's most notable 20th-century poets writing inWelsh.
R. Williams Parry was born inTal-y-sarn, inDyffryn Nantlle, a first cousin to the writersT. H. Parry-Williams and SirThomas Parry.[2] He studied at Tal-y-sarn elementary school, then atCaernarfon county school from 1896 to 1898, and for one year at the newPen-y-groes county school, then becoming a pupil-teacher from 1899 to 1902. He went to theUniversity College of Wales, Aberystwyth, from 1902 to 1904, and left having taken part of the degree course and trained as a teacher. After working as a teacher at various schools until 1907, he completed his degree at theUniversity College of North Wales, Bangor, then from 1908 to 1910 taught Welsh and English atLlanberis county school. He returned to college at Bangor and spent some months inBrittany working towards an MA degree, which he was awarded in 1912 for a dissertation on points of contact between Welsh andBreton, subsequently resuming his teaching work atCefnddwysarn, then atBarry county school, and was appointed English master atCardiff High School for Boys in 1916. Parry served in the army from 1916 to 1918, returning on demobilization to Cardiff, and in 1921 was appointed headmaster of Oakley Park School inMontgomeryshire. He left early in 1922 having been appointed a lecturer in the Welsh and Extra-Mural Studies Departments at the university college in Bangor, where he remained until his retirement in 1944.[3] After his marriage in 1923 he lived inBethesda, Gwynedd.[4]
Parry earned widespread recognition as a poet when he won thechair at the 1910National Eisteddfod for his poem "Yr Haf" ('The Summer'), which has been described as "the best known and admired of all the eisteddfodawdlau of the 20th century". He published two collections of poetry:Yr Haf a cherddi eraill (1924) andCerddi'r Gaeaf (1952).
Some of his most notable works include "Y Llwynog" ('The Fox'), "Eifionydd" and "Englynion coffa Hedd Wyn". In the latter he uses the traditional four-line verse orenglyn andcynghanedd to lament the death of the poetHedd Wyn (Ellis Humphrey Evans) at theBattle of Passchendaele in 1917. Hedd Wyn was posthumously awarded thechair at theNational Eisteddfod of Wales; Parry, three years Hedd Wyn's senior, was himself a major influence on his contemporary.
There is a short biography and appreciation of Parry's work by his cousin, Sir Thomas Parry, in theDictionary of Welsh Biography.[5]
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