Join Faber Members for 10% off your first order. Use code members10.
Summary
Delightful new versions of a great Welsh medieval poet’s lyrics – intimate, urgent and timeless
Dafydd ap Gwilym, Wales’s greatest poet, explored love, desire and the natural world with startling frankness and virtuoso wit. In a sequence freely adapted from Dafydd’s work, Matthew Francis brings him to life for the modern English-speaking reader: as he waits in the woods for his lover, ogles the girls in church or causes chaos during a midnight assignation. Plants, birds and animals are fondly invoked while weather and the elements – wind, waves, fog and ice – play their part. Passionate in his treatment of sexual themes, Dafydd is equally ready to make fun of his own susceptibility. These delightful poems remain, across the centuries, intimate, urgent and timeless.
‘Matthew Francis’s lively versions of the verses of medieval poet Dafydd ap Gwilym pay skilful tribute to the randiest of bards’ Suzi Feay, Financial Times, Best New Poetry
MatthewFrancis
Matthew Francis has lived in Wales for 25 years and his poetic version of the Welsh national epic The Mabinogi has been widely acclaimed. He has published six collections of poetry with Faber including Wing (2021), and edited W. S. Graham’s New Collected Poems. His other work includes a collection of short stories and three novels.
Read MoreMatthewFrancis
More books by Matthew Francis
Our Poem of the Week is ‘Stag’ by Matthew Francis, from his new book The Green Month.
Our Poem of the Week is ‘Monomoon’ by Matthew Francis, from a collection that is full of flight, air and …