Ellen Egryn was the daughter of Ellis Humphrey Evans, a village schoolmaster, and his wife. She was brought up in western Wales in the little village
Llanegryn, then in
Merionethshire, where she learnt to write poetry as a child. She moved to
Liverpool in 1840 but soon returned to
Machynlleth not far from her home town. It was there that in 1850 she created the collection
Telyn Egryn (Egryn's Harp), becoming the first woman ever to publish a secular Welsh-language book. Although she did not receive the same degree of attention as contemporary male poets, the work is considered to be a milestone in the history of women's literature in Wales. It presents a broad range of poetry covering bereavement, friendship, exile and depression, purposefully invoking an impression of the high moral standards enjoyed by Welsh women. Her poetry is closer to the work of 18th-century poets than to that of the Victorian poets who followed her in that she employed a level of language rooted in the pre-medieval period. ==Works==