The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-03-04

interviewed Llew Llwyd (Grey Lion)
once about his literary methods. l
found him sitting in his shirt sleeves
j mean i.e was sitting I'm an arm chair
with his shirt sleeves tucked up. Ilew
then was going on forty, with a bardic
career almost as long.
| Like many other successful literary
men. Llew believed in maximum OF
Out-Of-dOor recreation with a minimum
of close application in his study. His
great hobby was cutting coal, and he
told me that his happiest inspirations
came to him while ripping the top" of
his stall.
He was equally Indifferent as to his
tools of trade and modes of working
He showed me a blotched note book
which he carried with him to his stall,
and in which he was in the habit of jot-
ting down bits of verse as they struck
his fancy. He would often test an al
literative phrase by writing it in chalk
on the curley-boy. When all alone at
home. as he liked to be when in one of
his fits. and for which purpose he would
send his wife to the village on all sorts
of errands. he would drop on his kEees
on the stone floor and try his lines in
chalk. He thought that method emf
nently fitted subject that required q
bread handling. an ode or an epic, for
! instance. But as sOoon as he heard
| Mary's footsteps outside he would rub
out the writing frantically with piece
Of cloth readiest at hand. as II in mortal
fear of broad handling himself. Az
he told me that secret ] could not help
looking at the floor. and could see the
mutilated remains of an epic around
/ the corners Of the slabs.
He preferred the evening. after
warm bath and Il full meal. for regular
! literary work Before beginning a se-
riOus task he would exchange his cutty
pipe for q church warden. He told me.
also. that he could not work with his
coat on. He would usually write on
slips of brown paper which Mary sup
pied him with from the grocery par
GELS. He always. however. kept at
hand @ stock of foolscap paper with en-
velopes to match. and when he had
licked a piece into shape. so to speak, he
would employ IS brothers son to write
| it OF foolscap. ruch a task he could
only entrust to a relative. for Llew car
ricd on a play of hide and seek with the
public. claiming his works only after
| they had caught on and brought him
gain and glory. His unsuccessful pro-
ductiOns he treated as the Chinese do
an Overplus of chiluren. or as the Hin
docs used to send their old men to the
Ganges Hospital. Llew was. III fact.
the Great Unknown" of Cwmcoed.
| The first composition which Llew
submitted to the censors of the eistedd-
vod was few stanZas in praise of
Ebenezer Chapel. a high shouldered,
severely rectangular and perpendicular
structure. with the outline of a grain
elevator and the windows of soap fac
tory. The adjudicator said that the
stanzas contained much good. strong
sense. but no rhyme. His next work
was a quatrain or englyn on THE Tea
pot" which an adjudicator described
as strong in ALTERATION and rhyme, but
without particle of sense. Llew then
told me of his pathetic struggle to
match sense and rhyme according to
the prescribed bardic rules. He great
ly favored what he called the sane
views of Islwyn. and his best produc-
tions I found modelled after the poem
of Ebenezer Chapel rather than on
"The Teapot" In this again he resem-
bled a number of famous authors.
whose numerous productions are only
SO many variations on their first eff
forts.
But Llew's attempts at recOnciling
sense and rhyme were by no means un-
successful, and the prize quatrains on
1.-The Hammer THE Mandrel." 1.-The
Safety Lamp "The Pig" THE Colo
RADIO Beetle" and 'The Flea" appeared
in rapid succession. Then he sought
for his muse a wider play ground i'm
poems on Truth" "The Cwmcoch Ex-
plosion, "The Policeman "The un-
dertaker," "The Sexton" THE Cofiin"
and Immortality,