Friend of the sea—knight of the spray—
Oh, did’st thou know, for this delay,
What penalty the bard must pay,
Thou would’st not raise thy gloomy face
Between him and the trysting-place!
What though for Indeg’s[1] charms sublime,
My limbs thy dreadful heights must climb;—
Though death were in thy eddies stern;—
Death and thy hate I’ll rather spurn,
Than back from Morvyth’s shore return!
[The foregoing and a few other poems in this volume have previously appeared in the “Cambrian Quarterly Magazine.”]
THE CORONET OF PEACOCK’S PLUMES;
MORVYTH’S PRESENT TO THE BARD.
One glorious morn, beneath the grove,
To Morvyth many a lay I wove:—
“Maid of my heart, O twine,” I said,
“One rural garland for my head;
One verdant manacle, to be
This hour of rapture’s memory!”
“Dear bard, ’twere cruelty to tear
Yon lonely birch’s glossy hair—
Yon anchorite chain’d the cliff along—
I’ll pay with nobler gift thy song.”
- ↑ Indeg was a lady of King Arthur’s court, and a celebrated beauty. The bard here applies the name poetically to Morfydd.
