Owen Gruffydd
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Owen Gruffydd (1643-1730) was a Welsh poet{{cite book |author1=Thomas Powel |authorlink1=Thomas Powel |author2=Sir Isambard Owen |authorlink2=Isambard Owen |author3=Egerton Grenville Bagot Phillimore |title=Y Cymmrodor: The Magazine of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s4U59D68B8MC&pg=RA1-PA47 |year=1888 |publisher=The Society |pages=1–}} partly noted for a lament on the decline of the Welsh language in the early 18th century.{{cite book|author=Megan S. Lloyd|title="Speak it in Welsh": Wales and the Welsh Language in Shakespeare|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lI9ObncMk2sC&pg=PA37|year=2007|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-1760-6|pages=37–}}
Not much is known about Owen Gruffydd's early life and career except that he was born in the parish of Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire. It is likely that he lived much of his life there and in the outlying parishes. Gruffydd was a weaver by profession. He was, however, known more for his poetic gifts. He also earned a name as a genealogist.{{cite DWB|last=Milwyn Griffiths|first=Griffith|title=Owen Gruffydd|id=s-GRUF-OWE-1643|access-date=6 March 2014}}
Poems
Gruffydd's poems, generally in the strict metres, were mostly composed in honor of the aristocracy living in the surrounding countryside, and it has been suggested that he may have been the last Welsh poet to travel in search of aristocratic patronage in the manner which had sustained Welsh poets for centuries.Glyn Tegai Hughes, "Life and Thought" in Branwen Jarvis (ed.) (2000) A Guide to Welsh Literature c.1700-1800, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, p.4 He also wrote some other types poems which were more popular verse. An example of these were the carols for Christmastide. Selected works of Gruffydd were published in Carolau a Dyriau Duwiol (1688), in Blodeu Gerdd Cymry (1759) and in Gwaith Owen Gruffydd (1904), edited by O. M. Edwards. A large collection of his works is archived in the British Museum and the National Library of Wales.
Later life
Gruffydd gradually lost his sight with old age and he dictated his verse to friends.
References
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Category:17th-century Welsh writers
Category:18th-century Welsh writers
Category:18th-century Welsh male writers
Category:People from Llanystumdwy
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