William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog)

For other people with the same name, see William Rees (disambiguation).

William Rees (8 November 1802 – 8 November 1883), usually known in Wales by his bardic name of Gwilym Hiraethog, was a Welsh poet and author, one of the major figures of Welsh literature during the 19th century.^[1]

Dr William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog)

Gwilym Hiraethog took his pseudonym from his birthplace, a farm called Chwibren-isaf, near Llansannan, on Mynydd Hiraethog in Denbighshire. He was the second son of Anne and David Rees, a farmer. Age three, he contracted smallpox and lost the sight in his right eye. He worked on the farm and as a sheperd in his teens. His older brother Henry Rees became a Calvinistic Methodist leader.^[2][3][4]

Largely self-educated, having only attended the village school in winter, Rees was a polymath, who took an interest in astronomy and political science as well as being a Nonconformist minister and a leading literary figure.^[2] A neighbour, Robert ap Dafydd of Cilfach Lwyd, taught Rees the rules of Welsh prosody and Rees went on to win a prize at the 1826 Brecon eisteddfod for a cywydd (poem) on the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. This gave him public attention.^[1] He joined the Independents church and became a popular preacher in the Welsh language. He became a minister in 1831 in Mostyn, later working in Denbigh and Liverpool.^[1][2]

In 1843, he founded the Welsh language journal Yr Amserau ("The Times") in Liverpool.^[5] He used the newspaper to campaign for the disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Rees also penned the hymn text of Dyma gariad fel y moroedd (Here is love, vast as the ocean), which was first published in 1847 but strongly associated with the 1904-1905 Welsh revival.^[6] His Helyntion Bywyd Hen Deiliwr (Predicaments of an Old Tailor) (1877) was a pioneering attempt to fashion a Welsh-language novel.^[7]

He retired in 1875 soon after the death of his wife Ann and moved to Chester to live with his daughter, where he died on his birthday on 8 November 1883.^[1][2]

Works

Poetry^[1]

• Emmanuel (1861)
• Tŵr Dafydd sef, Salmau Dafydd (1875) (Metrical Psalms)
• Gweithiau Barddonol Gwilym Hiraethog (1855)

Prose^[1]

• Llythyrau 'Rhen Ffarmwr (1878)

Novels^[1]

• Aelwyd F'Ewythr Robert (1852)
• Helyntion Bywyd Hen Deiliwr (1877)

Drama^[1]

• Y Dydd Hwnnw