‘Pursuing God’ Poetic Pilgrimage and the Welsh Christian Aesthetic A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the regulations of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature at Cardiff University, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, by Nathan Llywelyn Munday August 2018 Supervised by Professor Katie Gramich (Cardiff University) Dr Neal Alexander (Aberystwyth University) 2 CONTENTS List of Illustrations 5 List of Tables 6 Abstract 7 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction - ‘Charting the Theologically-charged Space of Wales’ 9 ‘For Pilgrymes are we alle’ – The Ancient Metaphor 10 ‘Church Going’ and the ‘Unignorable Silence’ 13 The ‘Secularization Theory’ or ‘New Forms of the Sacred’? 20 The Spiritual Turn 29 Survey of the Field – Welsh Poetry and Religion 32 Wider Literary Criticism 45 Methodology 50 Chapter 1 - ‘Ann heard him speak’: Ann Griffiths (1776- 1805) and Calvinistic Mysticism 61 Calvinistic Methodism 63 Methodist Language 76 Rhyfedd | Strange / Wondrous 86 Syllu ar y Gwrthrych | To Gaze on the Object 99 Pren |The Tree 109 Fountains and Furnaces 115 Modern Responses 121 Mererid Hopwood (b. 1964) 124 Sally Roberts Jones (b.1935) 129 Rowan Williams (b.1950) 132 R. S. Thomas (1913-2000) 137 Conclusion 146 Chapter 2 - ‘Gravitating […] to this ground’ – Traversing the Nonconformist Nation[s] (c. 1800-1914) 147 3 The Hymn – an evolving form in a changing context 151 The Form 151 The Changing Context 153 The Formation of the Denominations and their effect on the hymn 159 Hymn Singing 162 The Nonconformist Nation[s] 164 ‘Beulah’ or the ‘New Israel’ 168 Y Smotyn Du | The Black Spot 180 Yr Hen Gorlan | The Old Fold 185 Building Jerusalem 190 Death and Memory 197 The Individual 198 The People 204 Temperance 218 The Background 218 Temperance Literature 221 Conclusion 233 Chapter 3 - ‘Brewed God knows how long’: The Active Afterlife of Nonconformity in the Modernist poetry of Gwenallt and Glyn Jones 235 Gwenallt (1899-1968) 239 Hinterlands 241 Tröedigaeth 264 Glyn Jones (1905-1995) 277 Hinterlands 278 ‘He was very faithful, teetotal, and a nice boy’ 287 The ‘filthy attic’ 303 Conclusion 316 Chapter 4 – The Pluralism of the Welsh Christian Aesthetic: Four twentieth-century Poets 317 Anne Cluysenaar (1936-2014) 319 4 An experiential approach within the Welsh Christian Aesthetic 319 ‘Vaughan Variations’ 324 Saunders Lewis (1893-1985) 332 A Roman Catholic Approach within the Welsh Christian Aesthetic 332 ‘Mair Fadlen’ 337 Matter and spirit 344 The transubstatiating power of language 346 Pennar Davies (1911-1996) 348 A Pelagian approach within the Welsh Christian Aesthetic 348 ‘Cathl i’r Almonwydden’ 357 ‘A gwelaf…’ The Pelagian Gaze 358 Sex – Pelagian Freedom 364 R. S. Thomas (1913-2000) 368 An Anglican approach within the Welsh Christian Aesthetic 368 ‘Gwallter Mechain’ 374 Landscape and Language 374 ‘Big Medicine’ 383 Conclusion 386 Conclusion – Defining the Welsh Christian Aesthetic 387 A Hunger for Experiential Religion 388 A Geopious Attachment to the Land / to Ancestors 393 The Paradoxical Relationship between faith and doubt 395 Reflection 398 Bibliography 404 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 - Llandyfeisant Church, Llandeilo Figure 2 - Kathryn Le Grice, ‘Swansea’ (Blue Chapel II) (2015) Figure 3 - Map of Ann Griffiths's Country Figure 4 - John Elias and John Thelwall Figure 5 - A Baby's cradle with no baby in it (1872) Figure 6 - Why did Baby die? (1872) Figure 7 - ‘Cof golofn’ (1879) Figure 8 - Bytholwyrdd ar ei bedd (1881) Figure 9 - Beddrod fy Idwal Figure 10 - Beddrod fy Idwal 2 Figure 11 - William Hogarth, ‘Gin Lane’ (1751) Figure 12 - ‘Y Gwpan Feddwol’ (1837) Figure 13 - 'Cwm yr Eglwys' by F.R. Könekamp Figure 14 - Jack Hastings, ‘The Coming Revolution’ (1935) Figure 15 - Vincent Van Gogh, ‘Wheat Field with a Lark’ (1887) Figure 16 - Minny Street Webpage Figure 17 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 'Proserpine' (1874) Figure 18 - Ernst Barlach, 'The Writing Prophet' (1919) Figure 19 - Henry Vaughan’s Tombstone Figure 20 - A Bronze statue of Diana of the Ephesians Figure 21 - Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ (c. 1485) Figure 22 -The flag of the World Health Organization with the Rod of Asclepius. Figure 23 - ‘Gwallter Mechain' painted by Hugh Hughes (1790-1863) Figure 24 - Rembrandt’s 'Parable of the Hidden Treasure' (c. 1630) Figure 25 - William Blake, The Ancient of Days (1794) 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 - Total Church Attendance in Wales 1980-2015 Table 2 - Religious Affiliation in England and Wales 2011 Table 3 - Population reporting no religion, 2011, England and Wales local and unitary authorities Table 4 - Christian population, 2011, England and Wales local and unitary authorities 7 ABSTRACT This thesis aims to identify a distinct Welsh Christian Aesthetic within Welsh poetics between 1730 and the present day. It is not a comprehensive survey of Welsh poetics. Rather, this work focuses on particular trends within a large corpus of religious verse and documents how changing theologies and/or beliefs actually influence the artistic output. It identifies and examines the characteristics of the Welsh Christian Aesthetic as well as adopting a shaping metaphor of pilgrimage to explore the nuances within it. The shaping metaphor of this study is the pilgrimage: poets are imagined as making religious pilgrimages through a particular landscape. Each chapter charts a different territory which the poets pass through. The first territory is the Calvinistic Mysticism and the early establishment of the Aesthetic during the eighteenth and very early nineteenth centuries. The second territory is the terrain of the nineteenth-century Nonconformist Nations, and the chapter documents the complexities and changes in the Aesthetic. The third territory is that traversed by two Modernist poets in the twentieth century who backtrack and re-engage with an earlier religion whilst using a new idiom. The fourth territory is a contemporary terrain which explores the pluralism which is possible within the Aesthetic by focussing on four very different poets. As these pilgrim poets travel, they produce poetry that reflects their spiritual experiences or, indeed, their lack of them. These territories are metaphorical; however, they intersect with one another, as well as intersecting with both the theologically-charged and terrestrial landscape of Wales. Having explored the changing territories, the thesis concludes with a definition of the Welsh Christian Aesthetic. 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful to all those who have made this PhD possible. I would like to extend my sincerest thanks To the late Rev. Dr. Eifion Evans and Professor Bobi Jones for their guidance regarding theological issues and for their kindness throughout my studies. To Professors E. Wyn James, Damian Walford Davies, and Sarah Prescott for valuable assistance in the early stages of my doctorate. Diolch yn fawr. To the PhD cohort at Cardiff who have made the last three years a very enjoyable and stimulating experience: David Mason, Harriet Gordon, Robert Lloyd, Katherine Mansfield, Michael Goodman, Helen McKenzie, Rebecca Newby, Lucy Whitehead, and Seth Armstrong-Twigg. To Rhian Rattray and other members of the administration for all their assistance. To Dr Neal Alexander for being an excellent second supervisor. I would especially like to thank Professor Katie Gramich for her valuable assistance, support and guidance throughout my academic career from my time as an undergraduate all the way to the PhD. I have learnt so much and have benefited from her knowledge, expertise, and kindness. Diolch o galon. I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of both the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. To many of my other close friends and family. A special thank you must be given to Carwyn Shires and Hywel George for helping me and being such good friends whilst living with them at Longspears Avenue. I would like to thank my parents, grandparents, and sister for their continual and loving support. I would also like to thank my fiancée (or wife by the time this thesis is over) Jenna for her love, friendship, and support. Dankjewel! Last and not least, Soli Deo Gloria. 9 INTRODUCTION Charting the theologically-charged space of Wales This thesis aims to identify a distinct Welsh Christian Aesthetic within Welsh poetics. The ‘established’ and ‘dissident’ hegemony of Calvinistic Nonconformist culture (which intensified following the Calvinistic Methodist Revival of c.1730) provided the crucible for this national Aesthetic to form.1 However, I argue that this was a phenomenon which ultimately transcended the boundaries of traditional Nonconformist denominationalism and became an artistic manifestation of an older Celtic Christianity. This thesis also identifies and analyses the characteristics of this Aesthetic. As already alluded to, the theologies that influenced its making were much broader than the dominant Calvinistic strand of Welsh Methodism. Welshness and Christianity share a long association that predates Calvinism.2 Therefore, it is a Welsh Christian Aesthetic and not necessarily a Calvinistic or even a Nonconformist Aesthetic. The form, metre, language, and content of the poems are influenced by this theological context. This is not a comprehensive survey of Welsh poetics. Rather, this work focuses on particular trends within a large corpus of religious verse and documents how changing theologies and/or beliefs actually influence the artistic output. Therefore, the rationale for 1 It should be noted that