John Ceiriog Hughes

Hughes made his first attempts at poetry while a pupil at Nant y Glôg School, after his father had given him a book on Welsh grammar, including a section on the sound arrangement known as cynghanedd.

Ceiriog's desire to restore simplicity of diction and emotional sincerity to Welsh poetry did for it what Wordsworth and Coleridge had done for English.

Such lyrics include "Dafydd y Garreg Wen" (David of the White Rock) and "Ar Hyd y Nos" (All Through the Night).

Ceiriog Hughes wrote Welsh-language lyrics for "The Ash Grove" which were published in Brinley Richards's The Songs of Wales (1873).

This led to a grand project of four planned volumes of Welsh airs, of which only the first appeared in print, in 1863: Cant O Ganeuon (A Hundred Songs).