National Lyrics, and Songs for Music/A Farewell to Wales
A FAREWELL TO WALES.
FOR THE MELODY CALLED "THE ASH GROVE."
ON LEAVING THAT COUNTRY WITH MY CHILDREN.
The sound of thy streams in my spirit I bear—
—Farewell! and a blessing be with thee, green land!
On thy hearths, on thy halls, on thy pure mountain-air,
On the chords of the harp, and the minstrel's free hand!
From the love of my soul with my tears it is shed,
As I leave thee, green land of my home and my dead!
I bless thee!—yet not for the beauty which dwells
In the heart of thy hills, on the rocks of thy shore;
And not for the memory set deep in thy dells,
Of the bard and the hero, the mighty of yore;
And not for thy songs of those proud ages fled,
—Green land, Poet-land of my home and my dead!
I bless thee for all the true bosoms that beat,
Where'er a low hamlet smiles up to thy skies,
For thy cottage hearths, burning the stranger[1] to greet,
For the soul that shines forth from thy children’s kind eyes!
May the blessing, like sunshine, about thee be spread,
Green land of my childhood, my home, and my dead!
- ↑ errata