THOMAS, SIENCYN or JENKIN (1690 - 1762), boot-maker, Dissenting preacher, and poet

Name: Siencyn Thomas
Date of birth: 1690
Date of death: 1762
Child: John Jenkin
Parent: Thomas Morgan
Gender: Male
Occupation: boot-maker, Dissenting preacher, and poet
Area of activity: Business and Industry; Poetry; Religion
Author: Geraint Bowen

The son of Thomas Morgan, miller, of Tre Wen, Brongwyn, Cardiganshire. He lived at Cwm Du. According to the evidence of the elegy written upon him by his son, John Jenkin, he was born in 1690. He began his career as a Dissenting preacher in 1716 and attended to the spiritual needs of the congregations at Tre-wen and Llechryd. His englynion ' In Laudem Authoris ' in Drych y Prif Oesoedd, 1716, and his cywydd printed in Meddylieu Neillduol ar Grefydd, 1717, show that, in spite of the fact that he was still comparatively young, he was far in advance of his literary friends in the south of Cardigan in his mastery of prosody and in his knowledge of the traditional forms of the cywydd. He is at his best in his elegy upon Ifan Gruffydd of Tŵr Gwyn, 1753. His 'free' poems are highly religious and moral; both the cynghanedd and the internal rhyme figure prominently in them. He was the first Cardiganshire poet to use the 'three-beat' metre.

Author

Published date: 1959

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