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TO MORVYTH.
The bard supposes himself to have died of love, and describes his funeral.
Maid with the glowing form, and lily brow
Beneath a woof of golden tresses! now
(As oft before, through years of grief and shame,
And love intense as hopeless)—I exclaim
“Sancta Maria! canst thou not redress
The torments wrought by tyrant loveliness;
To thee I’ve paid the honours of a bride[1],
But thy stern kinsmen’s unrelenting pride
To me the nuptial presents has denied!
- ↑ It is an old Welsh custom for each of the wedding guests to make a present to the newly-married couple. The clandestine manner in which the bard was married to Morvyth necessarily deprived him of the benefit of this usage, and as the relatives of his bride refused to give their sanction to the marriage, he had no opportunity of obtaining the usual gifts by a subsequent and more regular celebration of the ceremony. Hence his expression, that the kinsmen of Morvyth
‘To thee I’ve paid the honours of a bride,
But thy stern kinsmen’s unrelenting pride
To me the nuptial presents has denied!’
is a poetical mode of intimating that they had refused to sanction his nuptials with Morvyth.‘To me the nuptial presents have denied,’
