poet and prose writer, regarded as the father of the modern Welsh secular lyric.

While an apprentice shoemaker, he began attending meetings of the Cymreigyddion, an organization of Welshmen in London dedicated to preserving ancient Welsh literature, and he participated in eisteddfods (competitive festivals in the arts, especially poetry and singing). With financial help from friends he attended the University of Oxford, graduating in 1828, in which year his elegy to Bishop Heber won the prize at the Denbigh eisteddfod. In 1833 Blackwell became rector of Manordeifi, Pembrokeshire, and in 1834–35 he was editor of a Welsh magazine, Y Cylchgrawn. His collected works were published as Ceinion Alun (1851).