The Poetry of Wales | Page 8

covenants
sacred
That mortal with mortals e'er made?"
A silent voice

whispers,--"Departed--
'Tis long since their records did fade!"
I hear him again, while he's winging
His flight through the realms of the sky,
Th' immovable covenant
singing
With voice so melodious and high
That all the bright mountains
celestial
Are dancing, as thrill'd with delight:
Too lofty for visions terrestial--
He vanishes now from my sight.
Blest Saviour, my rock, and my refuge,
I fain to thy bosom would flee;
Of sorrows an infinite deluge
On Calv'ry thou barest for me:
Thou fountain of love everlasting--
High home of the purpose to save:
Myself on the covenant casting,
I triumph o'er death and the grave.
AN ODE TO THE THUNDER.
TRANSLATED BY THE REV. R. HARRIES JONES, M.A.
[The author of the following poem, Mr. David Richards, better known
by his bardic name of Dafydd Ionawr, was born in the year 1751 at
Glanmorfa, near Towyn, Merionethshire, and died in 1827. He was
educated at Ystradmeurig Grammar School, with a view to entering the
Welsh Church, but his academic career was cut short by the death of
his parents, and he devoted himself to tuition. He composed two long
poems, viz.: an "Ode to the Trinity," and an "Ode to the Deluge,"
besides a number of minor poems, and were first published in 1793.

This poet is designated the Welsh Milton, by reason of the grandeur of
his conceptions and the force of his expression.]
Swift-flying courser of the ambient skies!
Thy trackless bourne no
mortal ken espies!
But in thy wake the swelling echoes roll
While
furious torrents pour from pole to pole;
The thunder bellows forth its
sullen roar
Like seething ocean on the storm-lashed shore;
The
muttering heavens send terror through the vale,
And awe-struck
mountains shiver in the gale;
An angry, sullen, overwhelming sound

That shakes each craggy hollow round and round,
And more
astounding than the serried host
Which all the world's artillery can
boast;--
And fiercely rushing from the lurid sky
From pregnant
clouds and murky canopy
The deluge saturates both hill and plain--

The maddened welkin groaning with the strain:
The torrents dash
from upland moors along
Their journey to the main, in endless throng,

And restless, turbid rivers seethe and rack,
Like foaming cataracts,
their bounding track;
A devastating flood sweeps o'er the land,

Tartarean darkness swathes the sable strand!
O'er wolds and hills, o'er
ocean's chafing waves
The wild tornado's bluster wierdly raves;

The white-heat bolt of every thundering roar
The pitchy zenith
coruscating o'er;
The vast expanse of heaven pours forth its ire
'Mid
swarthy fogs streaked with candescent fire!
The sombre meadows can be trod no more
Nor beetling brow that
over-laps the shore;
The hailstones clattering thro' field and wood--

The rain, the lightning and the scouring flood,
The dread of waters
and the blazing sky
Make pensive captives all humanity;
Confusion
reigns o'er all the seething land,
From mountain peak to ocean's
clammy strand;
As if--it seemed--but weak are human words,
The
rocks of Christendom were rent to sherds:
They clash, they dash, they
crash, above, around,
The earth-quake, dread, splits up and rasps the
ground!
Tell me, my muse, my goddess from above,
Of dazzling sheen, and

clothed in robes of love,
What this wild rage--this cataclysmic fall--

What rends the welkin, and, Who rules them all?
"'Tis God! The Blest! All elements are his
Who rules the
unfathonable dark abyss.
'Tis God commands! His edicts are their
will!
Be silent, heavens! The heavens are hushed and still!"
These
are the wail of elemental life;
The fire and water wage supernal strife;

The blasting fire, with scathing, angry glare,
Gleamed like an
asphalte furnace in the air:
Around, above it swirled the water's
sweep,
And plunged its scorching legions in the deep!
The works of God are good and infinite,
The perfect offsprings of his
love and might,
And wonderful, beneficient in every land--
With
wisdom crowned the creatures of His hand;
And truly, meekly, lowly
must we bow
To worship Him who made all things below,
For
from His holy, dazzling throne above
He gives the word,
commanding, yet in love,--
"Ye fogs of heaven, ye stagnant, sluggard forms
That float so
laggardly amid the storms!
Disperse! And hie you to yon dormant
shores!
Your black lair lies where ocean's caverns roar!"
The fogs
of heaven o'er yonder sun-tipped hill
Their orcus-journey rush, and
all is still.
In brilliant brightness breaks the broad expanse
Of
firmament! Heaven opens to our glance;
And day once more
out-pours its silvery sheen,
A couch pearl-decked, fit for its orient
queen; (aurora)
The sun beams brightly over hill and dale
Its
glancing rays enliven every vale:
Its face effulgent makes the heaven
to smile
Thro' dripping rain-drops yet it smiles the while,
Its
warmth makes loveable the teeming world,
Hill, dale, where'er its
royal rays are hurled;
Sweet nature smiles, and sways her magic wand,

And sunshine gleams, beams, streams upon the strand;
And
warbling birds, like angels from above
Do hum their hymns and sing
their songs of love!--

THE DELUGE.
BY DAVID RICHARDS, ESQ.

Whether to the east or west
You go, wondrous through all
Are the
myriad clouds;
Dense and grim they appear--
Black and fierce the
firmament,
Dark and horrid is all.
A ray of light's