Written by William Leathart, Llywydd.
Sung at the Second Anniversary of the Society of Undeb Cymry, St. David’s Day, 1825.
Air—Pen Rhaw.
I.
If bards tell true, and hist’ry’s page
Is right,—why, then, I would engage
To tell you all about the age,
When Cæsar used to speak;
When dandy Britons painted,—were
Dress’d in the skin of wolf or bear,
Or in their own, if none were there,
Before they wore THE LEEK.
Ere Alfred hung in the highway,
His chains of gold by night or day;
And never had them stol’n away,
His subjects were so meek.
When wolves they danc’d o’er field and fen;
When austere Druids roasted men;—
But that was only now and then,
Ere Welshmen wore THE LEEK.
II.
Like all good things—this could not last,
And Saxon gents, as friends, were ask’d,
Our Pictish foes to drive them past
The wall:—then home to seek,
Instead of home, the cunning chaps
Resolv’d to stop and dish the APs,
Now here they are, and in their caps
To day they wear THE LEEK.
Yet tho’ our dads, they tumbled out,
And put each other to the rout,
We sons will push the bowl about;—
We’re here for fun or freak.
Let nought but joy within us dwell;
Let mirth and glee each bosom swell;
And bards, in days to come, shall tell,
How Welshmen love THE LEEK.