Huw Owen Williams (13 July 1886 – 28 June 1961), who wrote as Huw Menai, was a Welsh poet, a

Welsh-language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has al ...

speaker who nevertheless wrote only in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

. His poems were among the first classic works to be republished as a result of a 2004 incentive on the part of the

Welsh Assembly Government Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

Biography

Huw Menai was born in

Caernarfon Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is ...

; although his birth certificate says his parents were William and Elizabeth Williams, it has been suggested that his natural father may have been another man named Hugh Owen. He was educated at the Ragged School in Caernarfon, and left school aged twelve, later becoming a miner at Gilfach Goch. He married Anne Jones in 1910; they had three sons and five daughters. Having moved to Merthyr Vale, where his father was working, he became politically active and wrote for socialist publications, until promotion forced him to take the employer's side. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he began writing poetry and contributing to mainstream newspapers such as the '' Western Mail''. His friends and correspondents included Wil Ifan,

John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...

, and Raymond Garlick. He was not a

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, but had been taught

Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's '' ...

at school and was heavily influenced by

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

, an influence shown in poems such as "The Passing of Guto", which was praised by T. S. Eliot. He admitted to having been brought up on '' Palgrave's Golden Treasury'', and his character "Alf" represents an

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

. His work has been compared with that of

Idris Davies Idris Davies (6 January 1905 – 6 April 1953) was a Welsh poet. Born in Rhymney, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, he became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English. He was the only poet to cover signific ...

, but

Meic Stephens Meic Stephens (23 July 1938 – 2 July 2018) was a Welsh literary editor, journalist, translator, and poet. Birth and education Meic Stephens was born on 23 July 1938 in the village of Treforest, near Pontypridd, Glamorgan. He was educated ...

says that Huw Menai "lacks the power and passion" of Davies. He eventually moved to Penygraig, and often faced hardship, receiving a civil list pension from 1949, thanks to the intervention of the Port Talbot Forum. One of his sons, Alun Menai Williams, was an army medic and a prominent anti-Fascist campaigner who joined the

International Brigade The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existe ...

and fought in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

Works

*''Through the Upcast Shaft'' (1920) *''The Passing of Guto'' (1927) *''Back in Return'' (1933) *''The Simple Vision'' (1945)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menai, Huw 1886 births 1961 deaths People from Caernarfon 20th-century Welsh poets