William Thomas (Islwyn)

William Thomas, bardic name Islwyn (April 3 1832 – November 20 1878), was a Welsh language poet, born near Ynysddu, then in the old county of Monmouthshire , south-east Wales.

Early life

Both Islwyn's elder brothers were engineers, and he was intended for the same profession, but showed an aptitude for the ministry, and was sent to an academy run by Dr Evan Davies at Swansea. He was at one time tutored by a namesake, the poet William Thomas (Gwilym Marles).

He became engaged to a local girl, Ann Bowen. Her death in 1853, at the age of twenty, became a source of poetic inspiration to him, and he was a regular winner of local Eisteddfod prizes from the 1850s onwards, taking his bardic name from the mountain Mynyddislwyn, above his home.

His two best-known poems are both entitled "Yr Ystorm" ("The Storm"), a long philosophic poem over 9,000 lines long. His poems are noted for their confident expressions of Christian faith, expectation of reunion in heaven, fulfilment of Christian duty and completion of a life fulfilled in God's work. He began preaching in 1854, and was ordained a Calvinistic Methodist minister in 1859 but never took charge of a church.

In 1864 he married Martha, Ann Bowen's step-sister. He edited several periodicals, and the Welsh column of the "Cardiff Times". His poetry, although not always greatly regarded in his own lifetime found favour after his death and is now thought to be amongst the finest of the nineteenth century.

He also wrote twenty-nine poems in English.

He died in Ynysddu in 1878.

External links

* [http://www.crosskeys.me.uk/history/islwyn.htm Islwyn Info and examples of his work]
* [http://gwent-county-history-association.newport.ac.uk/newsletter/islwyn.html Gwent County History Association on Islwyn]
* [http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-THOM-WIL-1832.html National Library of Wales Dictionary of Welsh Biography on Islwyn]

Works

*"Barddoniaeth" (1854)
*"Caniadau" (1867)
*"Ymweliad y Doethion a Bethlehem" (1871)

Bibliography

*Owen M. Edwards (ed.), "Gwaith Barddonol Islwyn" (Wrecsam, 1897)
*J.T. Jones (ed.), "Detholiad o waith Islwyn" (1932)
*T.H. Parry-Williams, "Islwyn" (1948)
*Meurig Walters (ed.), "Y Storm" (1980)
*Meurig Walters, "Islwyn: Man of the Mountain" (1983)

ources

* [http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s-THOM-WIL-1832.html Welsh Biography Online]