Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
The Cuckoo’s Song to Merioneth
By Lewis Morris (1833–1907)W
Where fruitful climes abound;
Of social youths, and streaming jars,
When mirth and wine go round:
All these are only found compleat
In fair Mervinia’s sweet retreat.
To threaten want and dearth;
Cold and barren, void of green,
Yet full of joy and mirth;
Who thinks the nightingale to hear
On mountains chanting all the year?
Each villager has charms!
Discretion ’s to the housewife joined,
The pleased beholder warms:
In thee, Mervinia, dwell the fair,
Who rule all hearts, or cause despair!
How beautiful the thrush!
With wing expanded seems to gleam,
All spangling in the bush:
And yet how far the maids excel,
Who in Mervinia’s valleys dwell?
To range through every grove;
As sweet as to the infant-mind
To sip the milk they love;
Could I, I would explore to thee,
How sweet, Mervinia, thou ’rt to me.
When friends united are;
The odes alternately go round,
Unthinking of the miser’s care.
How sweet their voices round the fire,
When fair Mervinians join the lyre!
And range new joys to find;
Command what seas and land can boast,
Uneasy ’s still my mind:
To thee, Mervinia, I ’ll return,
My soul for thee doth ever burn.