Tomos Prys

Tomos Prys (c. 1564 – 23 August 1634) was a Welsh soldier, sailor, privateer and poet. A number of his poems, written in a mixture of Welsh and English, are extant in manuscript.

Quotes

• Be meeri I see a sael
  gif sias er a gefais i
  owt topsaelyw lowt tipsi
  gif way ar y gauafwynt
  kynill agynilly gwynt.
  • 'Be merry, I see a sail.
    Give chase, for all I've got!
    Out topsail, you lout tipsy!
    Give way!' In the winter storm
    We mustered and mastered the wind.
  • A Poem to show the Trouble that befell him when he was at Sea (Cywydd i ddangos yr hildring a fu i ŵr pan oedd ar y môr), trans. Gwyn Williams
  • Variant reading quoted by David Fraser, The Adventurers (1976), p. 121:

    Bi Miri! I see a sayl
    Gif sias, er a gefais i!
    Owt topsail, yw lowt tipsy
    Gif way, er y gauaf wynt.

• Before I will, pill or part
  Buy a ship, I'll be a sheaphart!
  • Before I will pillage or part
    Buy a ship, I'll be a shepherd.
  • A Poem to show the Trouble that befell him when he was at Sea (Cywydd i ddangos yr hildring a fu i ŵr pan oedd ar y môr), trans. Gwyn Williams

External links

• Gwyn Williams, Presenting Welsh Poetry: An Anthology of Welsh Verse (1959), p. 41

• Gwyn Williams, Welsh Poems: Sixth Century to 1600 (1973), p. 107

• Gwyn Williams, The Burning Tree: Poems from the First Thousand Years of Welsh Verse (1979), p. 200