Everybody, let's do the Welsh Wrap!

Now I am finally at the wrapping and waving part of my project. According to Annette Lamb wrapping an waving involve deciding how to share the information that you found. In the beginning I wanted to do an annotated bibliography of Welsh literature. Then I found many good books that I could never read in time. Therefore, I decided to write a story. I changed my mind again. A story would convey the necessary information, but not the emotion. Welsh history is filled with sadness. I felt a poem, would more accurately represent my information. In addition to my poem, I created a chart of Welsh and other Celtic languages. The chart shows that Welsh is the most widely spoken Celtic language in the world today. I also created a word search with help from teach-nology. Below is my poem.

Decay, pallid clouds hover, a dreary mist, a pungent odor wet and corroded,
I, once glorious and green, moans, shrieking, chiseling, hammering,
The mine within in me, now a hollow memory.

Millions of years, I was molded by the earth,
Out of the dust she rose and witnessed the greatness and sorrows of her people,
The Celts tamed the mountain ranges, filled the valleys with song and traversed the seas,
Romans, Angles, Saxons and Normans raided the countryside,
The Romans established Caerwent and Carmarthen,
The Angles, Saxons, and Normans purged the countryside of her honor.

Out of the darkness a great kingdom,
Gruffudd ap Cynan and his son Owain surrounded me with greatness,
Poetry, music filled my ears,
Life replaced death, knowledge replaced ignorance.

My earth was tainted once more,
Succession struggles, King John’s interference,
Lamentations, Lamentations,
Llewellyn ap Gruffudd conquers all of Wales,
Lamentations, Lamentations, Death, Demise,
Edward II, 1284, rummaged and rampaged, scourged and raped my soil.
Wales, promised a king who was born in Wales and spoke no English,
In return, gained a royal, Edward

1586, full union did occur with England,
Wales, laws, customs and language threatened,
Goodbye Gwynedd, goodbye Llywelyn,
Goodbye Kings of old, rest in peace,
May your voices carry over the mountains and fill the people with your spirit.

Coal, discovered, in my bowels,
Wrenching, blinding pain,
Frenzied picks, axes, clanging, clamoring, digging through my intestines,
Sludge fills my face and corrupts my soul,
What was once green, is now dead, dead…

Now I am alone, except for the trapped souls within me,
Their songs, their energy, their joys and sorrows, entombed in my labyrinth.
At night I can hear voices, haunting and taunting my sorrows.
My bare stomach growls, I look to the moon and weep.

Bibliography:

http://virtualinquiry/ws.htm

Llywelyn, Dorian. (1999) Sacred place, chosen people : land and national identity in Welsh spirituality, Cardiff : University of Wales Press.