Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Mathraval
By Robert Southey (1774–1843)N
O’er Menai’s ebbing tide, up mountain-paths,
Beside gray mountain-stream and lonely lake,
And through old Snowdon’s forest-solitude,
He held right on his solitary way.
Nor paused he in that rocky vale where oft
Up the familiar path, with gladder pace,
His steed had hastened to the well-known door,—
That valley o’er whose crags and sprinkled trees
And winding stream so oft his eye had loved
To linger, gazing, as the eve grew dim,
From Dolwyddelan’s Tower: alas! from thence,
As from his brother’s monument, he turned
A loathing eye, and through the rocky vale
Sped on. From morn till noon, from noon till eve,
He travelled on his way; and when at morn
Again the Ocean Chief bestrode his steed,
The heights of Snowdon on his backward glance
Hung like a cloud in heaven. O’er heath and hill
And barren height he rode; and darker now,
In loftier majesty, thy mountain-seat,
Star-loving Idris! rose. Nor turned he now
Beside Kregennan, where his infant feet
Had trod Ednywain’s hall; nor loitered he
In the green vales of Powys, till he came
Where Warnway rolls its waters underneath
Ancient Mathraval’s venerable walls,
Cyveilioc’s princely and paternal seat.