[Illustration]
There is, of course, to be an Eisteddfod in 1896; and it appears that
the Llandudno Executive Committee have been making some revolutionary
proposals with reference to it. They have resolved that they
"respectfully desire that the Gorsedd will see its way to concur in
the subject for the chair being in any metre, and not restricted to an
awdl. The Committee are aware that the awdl has antiquity and custom
in its favour, but, while calculated to develop skill in metrical
composition, the local Committee feel that the necessity of
composing in the form of an awdl is fettering to the conception and
imagination." I cannot say what an awdl is, but I am dead against
fetters, and, therefore, I say, down with the dastardly, fettering
awdl.
* * * * *
Swift, strike off the fetters, wherever they're found,
Let the song-loving Welshman go free and unbound.
To the awdl too long has he bended his knee,
But its fate has been sealed, and the Welshman is free;
As free as his ocean, as free as his breezes,
He shall write as he likes, in what metre he pleases;
And he faces his Gorsedd, and vows he won't dawdle
A manacled slave in the train of the awdl.
* * * * *