Fallen Poets

We took a trip up the coast this week to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. I have a readers ticket that I needed to renew for something I am researching and I also wanted to catch the Fallen Poets exhibition that is on this year. It concentrates on Edward Thomas and E H Evans, the poet known as Hedd Wyn, who both died in 1917. Hedd Wyn was killed at Passchendaele within six months of joining the army and the death of Thomas at Arras by a passing shell is well documented. It is believed that the nearness of the shell sucked the air from his lungs causing his heart to stop. He is said to have fallen to the ground ,dying without a mark on him. His small diary where he wrote his poems in immaculate tiny handwriting is on display. Taken from his breast pocket after his death it clearly shows the marks believed to have been caused by the shock waves of the shell. It was the smallest thing and I found it the most poignant. Hard not to cry and feel for these men even after all these years.

These two short films were playing on a loop in the exhibition and the Hedd Wyn version shows what a magical language Welsh can be. The poem Rhyfel, meaning 'War', has also been translated many times and versions of the final two lines often differ. I prefer the version that the National Library have chosen:

'The cry of the boys is on the wind, their blood is blended in the rain'. One hundred years on and the power of these poets and their words never diminishes.