These are the waves I had to fight
In that dread vision of the night!
And still, fantastic fool! I tread
Too deep, too deep, as in the dream;
A weight of waters o’er my head,
Still strive to swim against the stream!
Again I’ll plunge—but not in sleep—
For ever in Taf’s billows deep!
TO THE WIND.
The bard asks the wind to be his envoy to Morvyth, the lady of his love. This poem appears to have been written when the poet was imprisoned by the influence of Morvyth’s relations, in consequence of his having rescued her from Hunchback, (see the Life of Davyth ap Gwilym at the end of this volume). This circumstance gives great beauty to the contrast which the poet draws between his own situation, and the liberty and irresistible power of the element he addresses.
Bodiless glory of the sky,
That wingless, footless, stern and loud,
Leap’st on thy starry path on high,
And chauntest ’mid the mountain cloud;
