Edited with an introduction and notes by Elizabeth Edwards.

Richard Llwyd (1752-1835), a domestic servant turned poet and antiquarian, became one of Wales's best-known Romantic-period writers on the publication of 'Beaumaris Bay: A Poem' in 1800. Today almost forgotten, Llwyd was celebrated in his own time as the 'Bard of Snowdon', a poet whose depiction of North Wales's landscapes, literature and history came to define those spaces for later travellers to the region.

Detailed Description

This edition of his work reproduces the full text of 'Beaumaris Bay' alongside shorter lyrics, ballads and verse translations on subjects ranging from Wales's political and bardic history, to art and war, patronage, class and ambition, emotion and endurance, and the hidden lives of the rural poor.
A critical and biographical introduction locates Llwyd at the meeting point of labouring-class poetry, four nations Romanticism, and Welsh writing in English. Explanatory notes on the texts identify his sources, influences and wide-ranging literary and historical references.

Elizabeth Edwards is a Research Fellow at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth.