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Gladys Mary Coles

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The Black Chair of Birkenhead

An Ode to Hedd Wyn (1887 - 1917)

Not in green Wales this Eisteddfod,
the National 1917 in soot-dark Birkenhead.
Far from your mountain moors, Trawsfynydd,
the clear streams, sweet river Prysor,
flock, farm and family -
yet not so far as Passchendaele.

That September the trees in the Park
were already leafed in red
when from the stage your name was called,
the heraldic call across the massive tent,
a ritual summons to claim the bardic prize.
Archdruid Dyfed, Lloyd George, Leverhulme, knew
from that audience you would not rise.

The empty Chair enveloped in black,
your absence filling the auditorium
told of Armageddon
as six weeks dead you lay in Flanders.

Given into your family’s keeping
the dark-draped throne on a cart
was processed the long lane to Yr Ysgwrn.
Crested with flaring dragons
its fine oak craftsman-carved
by a Belgian refugee of Borough Road.

Hedd Wyn was the bardic name of Ellis Humphrey Evans of Trawsfynydd, Merionethshire, killed in France July 30th 1917 in the third battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).  The Royal National Eisteddfod, 7th-9th September 1917, was held in Birkenhead Park.  Hedd Wyn won the Chair with his awdl (ode) on the set theme, ‘The Hero’.

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