Tudalen:Llythyrau Goronwy Owen.djvu/82

invented by a set of conceited fellows, void of all taste in Poetry, at a time when the Tunes of the Antient Metres were no more known than those of the Odes of Horace are now. What a cursed groveling, low thing that Gorchest y Beirdd is, I leave you to judge; & I would at the same time have an impartial answer, whether the old despised, exterminated, &, (I had almost said) persecuted Englyn Milwr hath not something of antique Majesty in its composition. Now, for goodness' sake, when I have a mind to write good sense in such a Metre as Gorchest y Beirdd, and so begin, the Language itself does not afford words that will come in to finish with sense & Cynghanedd too, what must I do? Why, to keep Cynghanedd, I must talk nonsense to the end of the Metre, as my Predecessors in Poetry were used to do, to their immortal Shame; & cramp & fetter good sense, while the Dictionary is all overturned & tormented to find out words of alike ending, sense or nonsense. And besides, suppose our Language was more short, comprehensive and significant, than it is, (which we have neither reason, nor room to wish) what abundance of mysterious sense is such a jingling Metre of such a length able to contain! An Iliad in a Nut—Shell, as they say. In short, as I understand that it & its fellows were introduced by the Authority of an Eisteddfod, I wish we had an Eisteddfod again to give them a Dimmittus to some peaceable acrostick Land to sport and converse with the spirits of deceased Puns, Quibbles, & Conundrums, of Pious Memory. Then could I gladly see the true primitive Metres reinstated in their antient Dignity, & sense regarded more than a hideous jingle of words which hardly bear sense. —But where would I be a going? I must not expect to see these things till the Antiquated Crwth a Thelyn Rawn are in fashion again; which I much fear is not likely to be within this century.—Dyma i chwi ryw fath ar ddynwared Caniad ar 24 mesur i'ch Cymdeithas a'ch Iaith, a chan mai nhw yw'r cynnyg cyntaf a rois erioed ar ganu ar y 24 Mesur, nid wyf yn disgwyl amgen nâ bo rai beiau a gwallau ynddo; etto os yw Gramadeg Sion Rhydderch yn gywir, yr wyf yn tybio nad oes nemawr o feiau anafus yn y Gerdd ychwaith; pan ddêl Ioan Dafydd Rhŷs i'm dwylaw, mi a ganaf yn