"ORA PRO NOBIS"
(After Eifion Win, 1867- . He lies as a poet between Elfed and the "New Bards")
| A sudden shower
lashes The darkening pane; The voice of the tempest Is lifted again. The centuried oaks To their very roots rock; And crying, for shelter Course cattle and flock. Our Father, forget not The nestless bird now; The snow is so near, And so bare is the bough! A great flood is flashing Athwart the wide lee; Like a storm-struck encampment, The clouds rend and flee; At the scourge of the storm My cot quakes with affright; Far better the hearth Than the pavement to-night! Our Father, forget not The homeless outcast; So thin is his raiment, So bitter Thy blast! The foam-flakes are whirling Below on the strand, As white as the pages I turn with my hand; And the curlew afar, From his storm-troubled lair, Laments with the cry [102] Of a soul in despair. Our Father, forget not Our mariners' state; Their ships are so slender, Thy seas are so great. |
A FLOWER-SUNDAY LULLABY
(After Eifion Win, the contemporary Welsh poet)
| Though the blue
slab hides our laddy, Slumber, free of fear! Well we know it, I and daddy, Naught can harm you here. You and all the little sleepers, Their small graves within, Have bright angels for door-keepers. Sleep, Goronwy Wyn! Ah, too well I now remember, Darling, when you slept, How the children from your chamber Jealously I kept. Now how willingly to wake you I would let them in, If their merry noise could make you Move, Goronwy Wyn! Sleep, though mother is not near you, In God's garden green! Flower-Sunday gifts we bear you, Lovely to be seen; Six small primroses to show us Summer-time is ours; Though, alas! locked up below us, Lies our flower of flowers. Sleep! to mother's love what matters Passing time or tide? On my ear your footstep patters, Still my babe you bide. All the others moving, moving, Still disturb my breast; But the dead have done with roving, You alone have rest. [104] Then, beneath the primrose petals, Sleep, our heart's delight! Darkness o'er us deeply settles; We must say "Good night!" Your new cradle needs no shaking On its quiet floor. Sleep, my child! till you are waking In my arms once more. |