Red Hearts and Roses? e-bog

1. This is a lively introduction to a little known subject, the Welsh Saint Valentine's Day poems, and it should benefit historians, social scientists, and linguists.2. The volume presents 69 poems copied from manuscripts held at various libraries, and from personal collections of unpublished poems, all forming part of a social custom celebrated in mid-February. It presents translations of those poems, along with music where possible. It should provide musicologists and folklorists with further material for their studies.3. The book follows the development of the custom from the 17th century to the present day and identifies a change in mood and meaning over the centuries, from the early sentimental poems, to the spiteful verses sent anonymously to the one who had disappointed a prospective lover during the year, to the competition submissions of the custom's declining years.4. The volume also features unique photographs of a collection of six ornately printed Valentine cards dating from the second half of the nineteenth century and sent by a hopeful lover, John Owen, to the object of his dreams, Eleanor Pritchard. The National Library of Wales holds no such cards and these are a valuable contribution to our understanding of the developing custom of sending verses within cards.5. The book is not particularly argumentative or controversial, but is more concerned with solid descriptive scholarship rather than with the discussion of theoretical issues; many would regard this as one of the book's major strengths. This volume makes two original contributions to knowledge and understanding. The first contribution is to provide a rich collection of songs for the first time in their original language, translated into English and with musical notation. It also provides a comprehensive analysis of these poems and of the society in which they were sung. In so doing, it advances new insights into the tradition of observing Saint Valentine's Day in Wales. Indeed it argues that, although it is the fifth-century Dwynwen who is nowadays considered to be the patron saint of Welsh lovers, it was Valentine who handed out aid and sympathy to Welsh lovers, even as late as the 1970s.