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Let orchard, garden, vine express
Thy fulness and thy fruitfulness—
O’er all the land of beauty fling
The costly traces of thy wing!
And thus mid all thy radiant flowers,
Thy thick’ning leaves and glossy bowers,
The poet’s task shall be to glean
Roses and flowers that softly bloom,
(The jewels of the forest’s gloom!)
And trefoils wove in pavement green,
With sad humility to grace
His golden Ivor’s resting place!

To enable the reader to perceive the full force of many of the allusions contained in the foregoing beautiful poem, it is necessary to give a brief account of the peculiar features of the fine district to which it relates. Glamorganshire, in its northern districts, is occupied by wild and romantic mountains, from the foot of which to the sea extends the rich vale of Glamorgan, proverbially called the garden of Wales. In this latter division, the climate is so mild that the products of the more southern countries of Europe are found to ripen in the open air; hence there is a peculiar splendour in the opening of this poem, where the bard contrasts the bleak mountains of North Wales, amongst which he is a sojourner, with this delicious region, in favour of which he invokes all the gifts of the summer and the sun.

This county is equally remarkable for the diversified beauty of its landscapes. “Its scenery,” says a tourist, “is distinguished by unbounded variety; it is full of pictures from one end of the district to the other^[1].” The ruins of its princely castles, in which the bard was entertained, still excite the admiration of the tourist. Edifices ‘white with

1. Malkin’s South Wales.