The Boasts of Hywel ab Owain Gwy

This poem is about a man from the 12 century who was a prince poet and soldier and was the first to develop the courtly love lyric in welsh. The poem is written from his point of view, boasting about all the women he has been with in a week. His religion is undermined by his lack of respect for women as the continued metaphor of fruit is used, suggesting they are soft, seasonal, sweet and picked by men. The poem explores the way he loves each woman differently, his passion and unfaithfulness. The structure is unusual with two words on their own line, 'her' and 'quiet' demonstrating what the women is about having all the women you can and ironically keeping quiet despite the poem being a boast of it.  

Stanza 1:

• 'sunday...i praise the lord' introduces the poem with his importance of religion, on sunday the day of god. This is disproved as the rest of the poem shows his ungodly acts. 
• 'zealous' shows his passion for god and women.
• 'my busty nest' shows his possessiveness, as well as the physicality of his acts, nest being an animal bed shows his needs are animalistic. 
• 'whiteness' suggests purity which he will defile as well as demonstrating his focus on looks.
• 'pear blossom' shows a comparison to nature suggesting the persona feels being with lots of women is completely natural.
• 'scholar gwladus' is welsh for lame, showing he sees women as weak, and is against women being educated. 
• 'not to love her is a sin' shows he thinks he is following religion. 
• 'she pigeon coos' reinforces her as a weaker animal to him, and suggests she is trying to woo him. 
• 'thrust to woo her' is sexual language, shows he is preoccupied with physical acts. 
• 'flush like rosy apple skin' simile reinforces act being natural detaching her from personality, she is just a thing. 
• 'generys' welsh for mistress, suggests she is working for him but she is just one woman in his life. 
• 'dry old hymns is steal' shows all the different ways he pleases different women, and suggests he is turning against religion for her. 

Stanza 2:

• 'passion fruit in season' shows how different fruit are different women and he pleases them differently. 'season' suggests they have their prime then are discarded.
• 'one small cherry-englyn' shows she is easy to get into bed and links to his other love, poetry, which he uses to woo women. 
• 'my epic regular' suggests he is with her a lot, but this is only because she is epic, suggesting you have to be great to deserve his time. Possessive of her, and suggesting she is an everyday woman, and he has affection for her, causing his 'poetry of endearment'. 
• 'she wants no baby, she's gooseberry vehement' shows she is intelligent, but he just finds this irritating, calling her a gooseberry because she is harder to get into bed.
• 'sugared' shows his impulses are childish, he just wants sweet things not sour, and may suggest it is coating something nasty.
• 'score and score' suggests it is just about winning and getting more and more with no meaning. Also shows him boast. 
• 'eulogy' is a poem about death, connoting the end of inncence in these women once they have been 'scored'. 
• 'i can't brake-through an orchard i adore' shows it is more about the amount of women he has, he cant not give into temtation showing he is primative. 
• 'let her name be secret' about a married woman he sleeps with shows his smugness 'for her husbands sake' and that he doesnt care who he hurts, its just about the sex.
• 'my peach of a woman' another fruit reference. 
• 'vegetarian diet' shows he is only interested in women and sex. 

Stanza 3:

• 'lick up juices' sexual innuendo used to show his passion and suggest he can have whoever he wants as long as his 'busy tongue keeps quiet'. It also suggests he is making a mess of these women.
• 'o teeth i've all of mine' shows his cockiness and animalisticness and well as suggesting he is a predator to these women/fruit which he devours. 

Links:

• 'wild oats' objectifying women.
• 'talking in bed' contrast as passion is gone.