Dafydd Ap Gwilym's Invocation To The Summer To Visit Glamorganshire,


Where he spent many happy years at the hospitable mansion of Ivor Hael.

The bard, speaking from the land of Wild Gwynedd, or North Wales, thus

invokes the summer to visit the sweet pastoral county of Glamorgan with

all its blessings:



"And wilt thou, at the bard's desire,

Thus in thy godlike robes of fire,

His envoy deign to be?

Hence from Wild Gwynedd's mountain land,

To fair
organwg Druid strand,

Sweet margin of the sea.

Oh! may for me thy burning feet

With peace, and wealth, and glory greet,

My own dear southern home;

Land of the baron's, halls of snow!

Land of the harp! the vineyards glow,

Green bulwark of the foam.

She is the refuge of distress;

Her never-failing stores

Have cheer'd the famish'd wilderness,

Have gladden'd distant shores.

Oh! leave no little plot of sod

'Mid all her clust'ring vales untrod;

But all thy varying gifts unfold

In one mad embassy of gold:

O'er all the land of beauty fling

Bright records of thy elfin wing."



From this scene of ecstacy, he makes a beautiful transition to the memory

of Ivor, his early benefactor: still addressing the summer, he says,



"Then will I, too, thy steps pursuing,

From wood and cave,

And flowers the mountain-mists are dewing,

The loveliest save;

From all thy wild rejoicings borrow

One utterance from a heart of sorrow;

The beauties of thy court shall grace

My own lost Ivor's dwelling-place."



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