The Waldo Lecture

Lecture and unveiling at Llangernyw Sixty years following the publication of Dail Pren, Waldo Williams’s single volume of poetry, this year’s Annual Waldo Williams Society Lecture will be held at Llangernyw, Abergele.

This will be appropriate as his mother’s family hailed from the village. Though Angharad was born across the border at Market Drayton, her father, John, was a native of Bro Hiraethog, as it was known. His brother was the philosopher, Sir Henry Jones. Waldo’s poem ‘Cymru’n Un’ recognizes the area, because of family ties, as being very much a part of his make-up as was the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire and Preseli in Pembrokeshire.

This year’s lecture – the seventh – will be delivered by the poet Ieuan Wyn from Bethesda, Arfon and its title will be, ‘Mi welais drefn yn fy mhalas draw’: Beth oedd natur Gobaith Waldo? (‘I saw order in my far away palace’: What was the nature of Waldo’s ‘Hope’?) Known as the ultimate optimist Ieuan Wyn implies that Waldo believed “people could be awakened to appreciate their fundamental relationship and their dependency upon each other. He believed a greater emphasis on this realization of brotherhood would inspire a desire to create a social and political milieu with justice and peace at its forefront.”

The lecture will be held on Friday evening, September 30 – the actual date of Waldo’s birth – at Canolfan Addysg Bro Cernyw at 7.30pm. Taking part as well will be Tecwyn Ifan and pupils of Ysgol Bro Cernyw. Prior to the lecture, at 6. 30pm a plaque will be unveiled at the entrance to the Sir Henry Jones Museum by local historian, John Hughes, to denote Waldo’s close connection with the area. A booklet will also be available to highlight the connection.

In the meantime, until the end of the month, a Waldo Exhibition can be seen at the Museum which includes a bronze bust of the poet made by the sculptor, John Meirion Morris. The museum is open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons between 2 and 4 o’clock.

Entrance fee to the lecture will be £5 and members of Cymdeithas Waldo, on presentation of a membership card, will be allowed in for free. A translation service will be available.