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(From Madoc)
TO Bardsey was the lord of ocean bound,— | |
| Bardsey, the holy islet, in whose soil | |
| Did many a chief and many a saint repose, | |
| His great progenitors. He mounts the skiff; | |
| Her canvas swells before the breeze; the sea | 5 |
| Sings round her sparkling keel; and soon the lord | |
| Of ocean treads the venerable shore. | |
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| There was not, on that day, a speck to stain | |
| The azure heaven; the blessed sun alone, | |
| In unapproachable divinity, | 10 |
| Careered, rejoicing in his fields of light. | |
| How beautiful, beneath the bright-blue sky, | |
| The billows heave! one glowing green expanse, | |
| Save where along the bending line of shore | |
| Such hue is thrown as when the peacock’s neck | 15 |
| Assumes its proudest tint of amethyst, | |
| Imbathed in emerald glory. All the flocks | |
| Of ocean are abroad; like floating foam, | |
| The sea-gulls rise and fall upon the waves; | |
| With long-protruded neck the cormorants | 20 |
| Wing their far flight aloft; and round and round | |
| The plovers wheel, and give their note of joy. | |
| It was a day that sent into the heart | |
| A summer feeling: even the insect-swarms | |
| From their dark nooks and coverts issued forth, | 25 |
| To sport through one day of existence more; | |
| The solitary primrose on the bank | |
| Seemed now as though it had no cause to mourn | |
| Its bleak autumnal birth; the rocks and shores, | |
| The forest, and the everlasting hills, | 30 |
| Smiled in that joyful sunshine,—they partook | |
The universal blessing.
To this isle, | |
| Where his forefathers were to dust consigned, | |
| Did Madoc come for natural piety, | |
| Ordering a solemn service for their souls. | 35 |
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