Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RAIDERS' REWARD, by ALFRED DENNIS GODLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RAIDERS' REWARD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Bards of ancient cambria, string your harps anew
Last Line: Gave to both the colleges proctors of their own!
Alternate Author Name(s): Godley, A. D.
Subject(s): Oxford University; Wales; Welshmen; Welshwomen


BARDS of ancient Cambria, string your harps anew:
Minstrels at Eisteddfodau, here 's a theme for you:
Taliessin's followers, sons of Llywarch Hen,
Sing the raid the Saxon made on the Cymru men!

Mist upon the marches lay, dark the night and late,
Came the bands of Saxondom, knocking at a gate --
Mr. Jones the person was whom they came to see --
He, they said, had courteously asked them in to tea.

Did they, when that College gate open wide was thrown,
Go and see the gentleman, as they should have done?
No: in Impropriety's indecorous tones
(Quite unmeet for tea-parties) loud they shouted 'Jones!'

Straightway did a multitude answer to their call --
Un, dau, tri, pedwar, pump, chwech -- Mr. Joneses all --
Loud as Lliwedd's echoes ring all asserted 'We
Never asked these roistering Saesnegs in to tea!'

Like the waves of Anglesey, crashing on the coast,
Came the Cymru cohorts then: countless was their host:
Retribution stern and swift evermore assails
Him who dares to trifle with gallant little Wales.

Have you seen a torrent flow flooding all the flat?
Have you seen the cwrw da foaming from the vat?
Thus the blood of Saesnegs ran all about the stones,
Shed by persons answering to the name of Jones!

Bards of Pontydwddllwm! yours it is to say
How victorious Cambria triumphed in the fray:
How her vanquished enemies, captive made and bound,
Languished in imprisonment somewhere underground --

Till in awful majesty, summoned by a scout,
Proctors and their Marischals came and took them out:
Harpers of Dolwyddelan! 'tis for you to teach
How they fined that hapless band forty shillings each!

When the mighty CHANCELLOR heard about the thing
(Learned men of Lampeter, listen while I sing),
How the hordes of Saxondom Britons had attacked
(Here my soaring narrative condescends to fact),

Then the mighty CHANCELLOR swore a mighty oath
That the way they acted was laudable in both:
And to mark the gallantry every one had shown
Gave to both the Colleges Proctors of their own!





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