striking death too soon,
And nearer and sooner than they should: this dawn
Mauve as iron, whimpers as the biting jest.
PART II
Mawl i’r Haf
Tydi’r Haf, tad y rhyfig,
Tadwys coed brwysg caead brig,
Teg wdwart feistr tew goedallt,
Tŵr pawb wyd, töwr pob allt.
Tydi a Bair, air wryd,
Didwn ben, dadeni byd.
I’r Alarch
Yr alarch ar ei wiwlyn,
Abid galch fal abad gwyn,
Llewych edn y lluwch ydwyd,
Lliw gŵr o nef, llawgrwn wyd…
Gorwyn wyd uwch geirw nant
Mewn crys o liw maen crisiant.
Dwbled fal mil o’r lili,
Wasgod teg, a wisgud ti.
Siecyd o ros gwyn it sydd,
A gown o flodau’r gwinwydd.
Cannaid ar adar ydwyd,
Ceiliog o nef, clog-wyn wyd.
DAFYDD AP GWILYM (
c
. 1325–85)
ARGUMENT
By the tidal lapping of the water a gramophone remains as the only symbol of a lost
airman. The challenge arises to all people to discard their sorrow, break through
destruction and outshine the sun. The flowers of the field contrast sharply with the
clouding dispiritedness of the soldiers, whose sickness finally develops into gastric
trouble and mental neurosis. The healing hand and images of home offered by the girl
to her gunner.
We must upprise O my people. Though
Secretly trenched in sorrel, we must
Upshine, outshine the day’s sun. And day
Intensified by the falling haggard
Of rain shall curve our smile with straw.
Bring plimsole plover to the tensile sand
And with cuprite crest and petulant feet
Distil our notes into febrile weeds
Crisply starched at the water-rail of tides:
On gault and green stone a gramophone stands,
In zebeline stripes strike out the pilotless
Age: from saxophone towns brass out the dead:
Disinter futility that we entombing men
Might curb our runaway hearts. –
On tamarisk; on seafield pools shivering
With water-cats, ring out the square slate notes
Shape the birdbox trees with neumes, wind sound
Singular into cool and simple corners
Round pale bittern grass and all unseen
Unknown places of sheltered rubble
Where whimbrels, redshanks, sandpipers ripple
For the wing of living. Under tin of earth,
From wooden boles where owls break music;
From this killing world against humanity
Upprise against, – outshine the day’s sun.
Corymb of coriander: each ray frosted
Incandescent: by square stem held, hispid,
And purple spotted. Twice pinnate with fronds
Of chrome. Laid higher than the exulted hedge;
By pure collated disc of daisy glittering
White on a red powdered stem. By cusp of leaves
Held low to ground; this coriander cane,
Colonnade of angelica, chevril, fennel,
Parsley, aniseed, caraway, yarrow,
All kitchen’s frescade culled and tied away;
By this eyelet and low fieldfare herbs are
Accentuated; engraved and brought to light:
To green cymes of guelder rose and flax blue
Meadows of Pembrey sedge. To men allergic,
Gunners: Bogrush, Pricklesedge, stinking Goosefoot,
Foetid Hawk’s-beard, Black Horehound, Bloody-veined
Dock, Blue Broomrape, and Bastard Toadflax on dank
Plain of mud cough like Kerberous in midsummer lanes.
Food chyles constricted in their stomach,
Twisting, knotting, and deflexed, rats bolt
Between their teeth. All day the ghosts of ulcer
Hover in front of their paths. With unhealthy
Custom the MO turns a page, lays them aside,
Apart from communication, into pruned
Shuttered wards, curing each for the wrong event!
The MO turns a head. – Long necked in
Achillean sky, geese sleeve their own
Shadows through pools of air. Sailing downstream
Downfast to earth. Hydroplanes splash like
Zinnias on inrushing tides; fussy as moorhens
With tarnished back; whose legs of peeled elm
Trail scarlet garters into the shaking tips
Of reeds. To their aid. To his aid. To my lover.
Under tincture of Myddfai Hills, west of
Bristol glass, gold with bracken dust and black
Cattle motes and all chemical paradox:
XEBO 7011 camouflaged in naval oilskin
In all the gorgeous shades of Hades; –
By seiriol cat with
And nearer and sooner than they should: this dawn
Mauve as iron, whimpers as the biting jest.
PART II
Mawl i’r Haf
Tydi’r Haf, tad y rhyfig,
Tadwys coed brwysg caead brig,
Teg wdwart feistr tew goedallt,
Tŵr pawb wyd, töwr pob allt.
Tydi a Bair, air wryd,
Didwn ben, dadeni byd.
I’r Alarch
Yr alarch ar ei wiwlyn,
Abid galch fal abad gwyn,
Llewych edn y lluwch ydwyd,
Lliw gŵr o nef, llawgrwn wyd…
Gorwyn wyd uwch geirw nant
Mewn crys o liw maen crisiant.
Dwbled fal mil o’r lili,
Wasgod teg, a wisgud ti.
Siecyd o ros gwyn it sydd,
A gown o flodau’r gwinwydd.
Cannaid ar adar ydwyd,
Ceiliog o nef, clog-wyn wyd.
DAFYDD AP GWILYM (
c
. 1325–85)
ARGUMENT
By the tidal lapping of the water a gramophone remains as the only symbol of a lost
airman. The challenge arises to all people to discard their sorrow, break through
destruction and outshine the sun. The flowers of the field contrast sharply with the
clouding dispiritedness of the soldiers, whose sickness finally develops into gastric
trouble and mental neurosis. The healing hand and images of home offered by the girl
to her gunner.
We must upprise O my people. Though
Secretly trenched in sorrel, we must
Upshine, outshine the day’s sun. And day
Intensified by the falling haggard
Of rain shall curve our smile with straw.
Bring plimsole plover to the tensile sand
And with cuprite crest and petulant feet
Distil our notes into febrile weeds
Crisply starched at the water-rail of tides:
On gault and green stone a gramophone stands,
In zebeline stripes strike out the pilotless
Age: from saxophone towns brass out the dead:
Disinter futility that we entombing men
Might curb our runaway hearts. –
On tamarisk; on seafield pools shivering
With water-cats, ring out the square slate notes
Shape the birdbox trees with neumes, wind sound
Singular into cool and simple corners
Round pale bittern grass and all unseen
Unknown places of sheltered rubble
Where whimbrels, redshanks, sandpipers ripple
For the wing of living. Under tin of earth,
From wooden boles where owls break music;
From this killing world against humanity
Upprise against, – outshine the day’s sun.
Corymb of coriander: each ray frosted
Incandescent: by square stem held, hispid,
And purple spotted. Twice pinnate with fronds
Of chrome. Laid higher than the exulted hedge;
By pure collated disc of daisy glittering
White on a red powdered stem. By cusp of leaves
Held low to ground; this coriander cane,
Colonnade of angelica, chevril, fennel,
Parsley, aniseed, caraway, yarrow,
All kitchen’s frescade culled and tied away;
By this eyelet and low fieldfare herbs are
Accentuated; engraved and brought to light:
To green cymes of guelder rose and flax blue
Meadows of Pembrey sedge. To men allergic,
Gunners: Bogrush, Pricklesedge, stinking Goosefoot,
Foetid Hawk’s-beard, Black Horehound, Bloody-veined
Dock, Blue Broomrape, and Bastard Toadflax on dank
Plain of mud cough like Kerberous in midsummer lanes.
Food chyles constricted in their stomach,
Twisting, knotting, and deflexed, rats bolt
Between their teeth. All day the ghosts of ulcer
Hover in front of their paths. With unhealthy
Custom the MO turns a page, lays them aside,
Apart from communication, into pruned
Shuttered wards, curing each for the wrong event!
The MO turns a head. – Long necked in
Achillean sky, geese sleeve their own
Shadows through pools of air. Sailing downstream
Downfast to earth. Hydroplanes splash like
Zinnias on inrushing tides; fussy as moorhens
With tarnished back; whose legs of peeled elm
Trail scarlet garters into the shaking tips
Of reeds. To their aid. To his aid. To my lover.
Under tincture of Myddfai Hills, west of
Bristol glass, gold with bracken dust and black
Cattle motes and all chemical paradox:
XEBO 7011 camouflaged in naval oilskin
In all the gorgeous shades of Hades; –
By seiriol cat with
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