Reading Giraldus Cambrensis
LOOK at the peace of inanimate things,
The sanity of stones,
The probity of pasture fields, dead trees,
Old hills, and patient bones.
The sanity of stones,
The probity of pasture fields, dead trees,
Old hills, and patient bones.
Giraldus tells us the Archbishop stood
To preach at Parc-y-cappel
‘On a verdant plain’ — wherefore the people
Built there a chapel.
To preach at Parc-y-cappel
‘On a verdant plain’ — wherefore the people
Built there a chapel.
This bishop in 1188
Preached them the third crusade.
(A footnote adds that ‘Chapel Field’ now marks
The sermon that he made.)
Preached them the third crusade.
(A footnote adds that ‘Chapel Field’ now marks
The sermon that he made.)
Think, when at Parc-y-cappel, what young Taffy
Here took the Cross.
Did he sing, marching Europe, sad Welsh hymns
And look at a loss?
Here took the Cross.
Did he sing, marching Europe, sad Welsh hymns
And look at a loss?
Think of that stream of miserable men,
The half not knowing
Where with their mormals, sags and wretched staffs
They were meekly going.
The half not knowing
Where with their mormals, sags and wretched staffs
They were meekly going.
Think of the Sickness of the Hoste, the famine,
The ant-like army’s woe:
Betrayed by leaders, knackered by black Arabs,
Eight hundred years ago.
The ant-like army’s woe:
Betrayed by leaders, knackered by black Arabs,
Eight hundred years ago.
The sorrow-serpent wound by that Archbishop
Has wound away in pain —
But Chapel Field, now churchless, is once more
A verdant plain.
Has wound away in pain —
But Chapel Field, now churchless, is once more
A verdant plain.
Look at the peace of inanimate things,
The sanity of stones,
The probity of pasture fields, dead trees,
Old hills, and patient bones.
The sanity of stones,
The probity of pasture fields, dead trees,
Old hills, and patient bones.