Memory Remembered – The poems of E. Prosser Rhys

Adam Pearce Llyfrau Melin Bapur

Our mission from the start at Melin Bapur has been to address the fact that so many of the major works of Welsh literature are out of print.

Our ambition is to provide the kind of comprehensive library of literature in Welsh to be an equivalent to the Oxford Classics/Penguin Classics that have always been available in English.

Our Llyfrgell Gymraeg (Welsh Library) series, launched earlier this year, has included widely acknowledged classics by authors like Daniel Owen and T. Rowland Hughes, as well as the work of less celebrated figures like Gwyneth Vaughan which deserve to be better known, and also works which are somewhere in between, being lesser-known works by very well-known figures like T. Gwynn Jones.

The next writer to appear in the series, and the first poet, is a man whose stock, in some ways, has never been higher, making the difficulty in actually getting a copy of his work to read somewhat perplexing.

Though his work, and one poem in particular, created quite a stir when it first appeared in the 1920s, it seems to have been mostly ignored by the literary establishment for most of the last century prior to rediscovery over the last thirty years or so.

That poet is Edward Prosser Rhys and the reason – for his initial controversy, for his later obscurity and for his contemporary revival – is easy enough to pinpoint: he wrote about sex between men, making him one of the earliest LGBTQ+ poets in the Welsh language.

Groundbreaking

Born in Trefenter, Ceredigion, in 1901, Prosser distinguished himself as a journalist from a young age and had already published many of the poems in this collection by his twenty-second birthday, in a joint volume with J. T. Jones entitled Gwaed Ifanc (Young Blood) which would, surprisingly perhaps, prove to be the only book of poetry he published in his own lifetime.

Gwaed Ifanc was welcomed by some and criticised by others for its glimpses of modernism, but its reception was nothing compared to the reaction the following year when Prosser’s most famous poem, Atgof (Memory) won him the Crown at the 1924 National Eisteddfod, held in Pontypŵl.

A remarkable poem for its time, the pryddest describes a young man’s conflict as he tries to reconcile his views around sex, friendship and honour, its narrative sections include descriptions of a number of sexual encounters including one unambiguous reference to gay sex:

Hunasom… Rywdro’n hanner deffro’n dau

A’n cael ein hunain yn cofleidio’n dynn;

A Rhyw yn ein gorthrymu, a’i fwynhau…

We slept… then when both awaking,

Found ourselves embracing tightly;

Overcome by Sex, and enjoying it…

Explosive

The poem (and a number of others) appears to draw on Prosser’s relationship with his friend and lover Morris T. Williams (who would later marry novelist Kate Roberts).

The two had co-habited for a period in the early 1920s and though it appears the sexual aspect of their relationship had come to an end by 1924 the two were close companions until Prosser’s death in 1948.

The reference seems almost laughably tame by modern standards but was explosive at the time, leading to a bitter exchange in the press in which Prosser was described by one correspondent as a ‘pervert’ and ‘freak of nature’.

The controversy around the poem certainly brought him success and though his ability as a poet was quite highly respected in literary circles and publicly defended by the likes of the competition’s adjudicator W. J. Gruffydd (a man for whom controversy held no fear, perhaps a key factor in the success of Atgof: it’s hard to imagine a more conservative adjudicator would have crowned the poem) and others, Prosser would not repeat this early success and in fact published comparatively little poetry afterwards: a few poems appeared in the later 1920s but none at all in the 30s, though he did resume writing poetry during the Second World War prior to his death at the relatively young age of 47.

The bright poetic career that may have seemed ahead of him in 1923 did not materialise, and in fact he remained barely a footnote (if that) in discussions of Welsh literature in the decades after his death, though a collection of his poetry did appear in 1950.

It’s hard not to imagine that the controversy around this sexual aspect was not a factor and that, even if not outright condemnatory of this aspect of the poet, critics were uneasy in discussing it, or simply felt unable to do so.

J. M. Edwards’ introduction to the 1950 volume, for example, acknowledges the controversy around Atgof without saying how and why the poem caused such a stir. Atgof was, if you forgive the inevitable pun, somewhat forgotten.

Revival

Thankfully, we now live in a more tolerant age, and perhaps unsurprisingly with the relaxing of attitudes around sexuality Prosser has undergone a revival of interest in recent decades, with a biography, numerous articles and even a film, 1998’s Atgof by Ceri Sherlock, depicting Morris and Prosser’s relationship.

He is discussed in multiple books on queer identity, Welsh LGBTQ+ history and literature.

As a deliberate homage to Prosser and his most famous poem, the 2024 Eisteddfod in Pontypridd, ‘Atgof’ was once again set as the subject for the Crown, won by Gwynfor Dafydd.

Considering this revival of interest it’s strange to think his actual poetry has remained out of print, for so long, but no more.

We are delighted to announce the publication of Atgof a Cherddi Eraill, the first new publication of the poetry of Prosser Rhys since 1950, and in the centenary year of the crowning of the poem which gives the volume its name.

This new volume contains thirty poems which, we believe, constitute all of the poet’s published output. Atgof is his most famous poem and actually the only one to explicitly and umabiguously refer to queer sex, forearmed with this biographical knowledge it it is impossible not to read queer themes in many of Prosser’s other poems such as y Pechadur (‘the Sinner’), I Hen Gariad (‘to a Former Lover’), Mab ei Fam (‘His Mother’s Son,’ dedicated to ‘MTW’) and Strancio (‘Tantrum’, dedicated to ‘a companion with whom I lived’).

Many of these poems are, indeed, better than Atgof.

Still others discuss other topics altogether and Prosser’s politics (he was a member of Plaid Cymru and a pacifist) and his ambiguous feelings around the Second World War, such as Y Dewin.

Of the thirty poems in this volume twelve are sonnets and Atgof itself is formed of a sequence of twenty seven verses in sonnet form, and Prosser deserves recognition as a significant early proponent of the form (which, despite its early modern origins in Italian, in the Welsh context belongs strictly to the twentieth century).

The poems are prefaced by an extensive, specially-made and thoroughly-researched foreword by Gareth Evans-Jones (editor of Curiadau, the first anthology of LGBTQ+ poetry in Welsh) which explores the biographical background of Prosser’s poetry and makes a magnificent introduction with this too-readily pigeonholed figure.

Atgof a Cherddi Eraill by E. Prosser Rhys is available now from www.melinbapur.cymru and and shortly from a number of bookshops across Wales, and priced at £7.99 +P&P.

Also released this week from the publisher is Atgof a Cherddi Eraill by E. Prosser Rhys, priced at £9.99.