Gwerful Mechain
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Gwerful Mechain (fl. 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.
LifeEdit
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.<ref name=Koch>Template:Cite book</ref>
Her father was Hywel Fychan of Mechain in Powys,<ref name=Harries>Template:Cite DWB</ref> 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.Template:Sfnp
WorkEdit
She is perhaps the most famous female Welsh-language poetTemplate:Sfnp after Ann Griffiths (1776–1805), who was also from northern Powys. Her work, composed in the traditional strict metres, including cywyddau and englynion, 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 girl's middle".Template:Sfnp "Let songs to the quim grow and thrive", she adjures her readers. "Noble bush, may God save it".Template:Sfnp
She actively participated in the poetic culture of her day. Many of her surviving poems are examples of ymrysonau (poetic or bardic rivalry)<ref name=Koch/> with contemporaries such as Dafydd Llwyd of Mathafarn, Ieuan Dyfi and Llywelyn ap Gutun.<ref name=Howells >Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
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Further readingEdit
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External linksEdit
- Gwerful Mechain at Wikisource
- Gwerful Mechain at Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index