Уэльс ақыны Харри Вебб: Өмір және шығармашылық жолы

Welsh poet

Harri Webb (7 September 1920 – 31 December 1994) was a Welsh poet, Welsh nationalist, journalist and librarian.

Harri Webb was born on 7 September 1920 in Swansea, at 45 Tŷ Coch Road in Sketty, but before he was two the family moved to Catherine Street, nearer the city centre.

Webb grew up in a working class environment. In 1938 he won a Local Education Authority scholarship, and went to the University of Oxford to study languages, specialising in French, Spanish and Portuguese – a period of his life to which he made virtually no reference in his writings. While he was at university his studies were affected by the death of his mother; he graduated with a third class degree in 1941.

At the outbreak of World War II, Webb immediately volunteered for the Royal Navy, and served as an interpreter which included work with the Free French in the Mediterranean region, with periods in Algeria and Palestine, and with action in the north Atlantic. He was demobilised in Scotland in 1946.

Webb's first collection of poetry, The Green Desert, was published in 1969. Webb carried on living in Garth Newydd and commuting to the next valley until 1972, when he moved to Cwmbach near Aberdare, before finally retiring in 1974, the year that A Crown For Branwen appeared. This was followed by Rampage and Revel in 1977, and finally Poems and Points in 1983, soon after which Webb virtually ceased to write poetry, suffering a serious stroke in 1985. Webb's poetry is marked by his radical Welsh nationalist politics and a quasi Christian sensibility. In form it was often simple and comic, in order that it might influence a wide audience.

Webb remained in Cwmbach before moving into a nursing home in Swansea shortly before his death on New Year's Eve 1994. His funeral was held on 6 January 1995 on Dyffryn Road in Mountain Ash is named after Webb on the same road as the old library. Merthyr Tydfil Library have also held activities to celebrate Webb's life and promote young people's poetry in their programming. A ceremony was held at Webb's grave marking 100 years since his birth on 7 September 2020 by Guto Ap Gwent and Prys Morgan amongst others.