Gwerful Mechain (
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1460–1502), is the only female medieval Welsh poet from whom a substantial body of work is known to have survived. She is known for her
erotic poetry, in which she praised the
vulva among other things.
Life
Gwerful Mechain lived in
Mechain in
Powys. Little is known of her life, but it is generally accepted that she was a descendant of a noble family from
Llanfechain.
Her father was Hywel Fychan of Mechain in Powys,
her mother was named Gwenhwyfar, and she had at least four siblings (three brothers and a sister). She married John ap Llywelyn Fychan and had at least one child, a daughter named Mawd.
Work
She is perhaps the most famous female
Welsh-language poet after
Ann Griffiths (1776–1805), who was also from northern Powys. Her work, composed in the traditional strict metres, including
cywyddau
The cywydd (; plural ) is one of the most important metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry ( cerdd dafod).
There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the ("long-lined couplet") as it is ...
and
englynion
(; plural ) is a traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent know ...
, is often a celebration of
religion or
sex, sometimes within the same poem.
Probably the most famous part of her work today is her erotic poetry, especially ''Cywydd y Cedor'' ("Poem to the Vagina"), a poem praising the
vulva. In it, she upbraids male poets for celebrating so many parts of a woman's body but ignoring "the middle." "Let songs about the quim circulate," she adjures her readers. "Lovely bush, God save it."
She actively participated in the poetic culture of her day. Many of her surviving poems are examples of
Ymrysonau,
[ or poetic or ]bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
ic contentions or debates, with contemporaries such as Dafydd Llwyd of Mathafarn, Ieuan Dyfi
Ieuan Dyfi (c. 1461? – after 1502?) was a Welsh language poet.
Poetry
Very little information has survived relating to Ieuan and his poetry. Ieuan composed five poems to a woman named "Anni Goch" in one of which he accuses how false wom ...
and Llywelyn ap Gutun.
See also
*
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Gwerful Mechain at Wikisource
Gwarnant
* ''Cywydd y Cedor'' ("Poem to the Vagina")
by Dafydd Johnston
* ''I'w gŵr am ei churo'' ("To her husband for beating her")
English translation
by A.M. Juster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwerful Mechain
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
Medieval women poets
15th-century Welsh poets
15th-century Welsh women writers
People from Powys
Welsh-language poets
Welsh women poets