MORRIS-JONES, SIR JOHN

born Oct. 17, 1864, Llandrygarn, Anglesey, Wales died April 16, 1929, Bangor, Caernarvonshire original name (until 1918) John Jones teacher, scholar, and poet who revolutionized Welsh literature. By insistingthrough his teaching and his writings and his annual adjudication at national eisteddfodau (poetic competitions)that correctness was the first essential of style and sincerity the first essential of the literary art, he helped restore to Welsh poetry its classical standards. The eldest son of Morris Jones, a shopkeeper, he gave up the study of mathematics in order to devote his entire time to Welsh language and literature. After graduation from the University of Oxford, Jones became the first professor of Welsh at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. When he was knighted in 1918, he began styling himself Morris-Jones. His works include A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative (1913), Cerdd Dafod (1925; The Art of Poetry), Orgraff yr Iaith Gymraeg (1928; The Orthography of the Welsh Language), and an unfinished study of syntax (1931), published posthumously under the title Welsh Syntax. He also translated a collection of poems (1907), most notably The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym, a translation directly from the Persian.