I sought my solitary cabin; there,
Confus’d with vague, tumultuous feelings, lay,
And, to remembrance and reflection lost,
Knew only I was wretched.
Thus entranced,
Cadwallon found me; shame and grief and pride,
And baffled hope, and fruitless anger, swell’d
Within me. All is over! I exclaim’d;
Yet not in me, my friend, hath time produced
These tardy doubts and shameful fickleness.
I have not fail’d, Cadwallon! Nay, he said,
The coward-fears which persecuted me
Have shown what thou hast suffer’d. We have yet
One hope:.. I pray’d them to proceed a day,..
But one day more;.. this little have I gain’d,
And here will wait the issue; in yon bark
I am not needed;.. they are masters there.
One only day!.. The gale blew strong, the bark
Sped through the waters: but the silent hours,
Which make no pause, went by; and, centr’d still,
We saw the dreary vacancy of heaven
Close round our narrow view, when that brief term,
The last poor respite of our hopes, expir’d.
They shorten’d sail, and call’d with coward prayer,
For homeward winds. Why, what poor slaves are we
In bitterness I cried; the sport of chance;
Left to the mercy of the elements,
Or the more wayward will of such as these,
Blind tools and victims of their destiny!
Yea, Madoc! he replied, the elements
Master indeed the feeble powers of man!
Not to the shores of Cambria will thy ships
Win, back their shameful way!.. or He, whose will
Unchains the winds, hath bade them minister
To aid us, when all human hope was gone,
Or we shall soon eternally repose
From life’s long voyage.
As he spake, I saw
The clouds hang thick and heavy o’er the deep;
And heavily, upon the long, slow swell,
The vessel labour’d on the labouring sea.
The reef-points rattled on the shivering sail;
At fits the sudden gust howl’d ominous,
Anon with unremitting fury raged;
High roll’d the mighty billows, and the blast
Swept from their sheeted sides the showery foam.
Vain, now, were all the seamen’s homeward hopes,
Vain all their skill!.. we drove before the storm.
’Tis pleasant, by the cheerful hearth, to hear
Of tempests and the dangers of the deep,
And pause at times, and feel that we are safe;
Then listen to the perilous tale again,
And, with an eager and suspended soul,
Woo terror to delight us;.. but to hear
The roaring of the raging elements,..
To know all human skill, all human strength,
Avail not,.. to look round, and only see
The mountain wave incumbent with its weight
Of bursting waters o’er the reeling bark,...
O God, this is indeed a dreadful thing!
And he who hath endur’d the horror, once,
Of such an hour, doth never hear the storm
Howl round his home, but he remembers it,
And thinks upon the suffering mariner!
Onward we drove: with unabating force
The tempest raged; night added to the storm
New horrors; and the morn arose o’erspread
With heavier clouds. The weary mariners
Call’d on St. Cyric’s aid; and I, too, placed
My hope on heaven, relaxing not the while
Our human efforts. Ye who dwell at home,
Ye do not know the terrors of the main!
When the winds blow, ye walk along the shore,
And, as the curling billows leap and toss,
Fable that Ocean’s mermaid Shepherdess
Drives her white flocks afield, and warns in time
The wary fisherman. Gwenhidwy warn’d us
When we had no retreat! my secret heart
Almost had failed me... Were the Elements
Confounded in perpetual conflict here,
Sea, Air, and Heaven? Or were we perishing
Where at their source the Floods, for ever thus,
Beneath the nearer influence of the Moon,
Labour’d in these mad workings? Did the Waters
Here on their outmost circle meet the Void,
The verge and brink of Chaos? Or this Earth,..
Was it indeed a living thing,.. its breath
The ebb and flow of Ocean? and had we
Reached the storm rampart of its Sanctuary,
The insuperable boundary, rais’d to guard
Its mysteries from the eye of man profane?
Three dreadful nights and days we drove along;
The fourth, the welcome rain came rattling down;
The wind had fallen, and through the broken cloud
Appear’d the bright, dilating blue of heaven.
Emboldened now, I called the mariners:..
Vain were it should we bend a homeward course,
Driven by the storm so far; they saw our barks,
For service of that long and perilous way,
Disabled, and our food belike to fail.
Silent they heard, reluctant in assent;
Anon, they shouted joyfully,.. I look’d
And saw a bird slow sailing overhead,
His long white pinions by the sunbeam edged,
As though with burnished silver,.. never yet
Heard I so sweet a music as his cry!
Yet three days more, and hope more eager now,
Sure of the signs of land,.. weed-shoals, and birds
Who flocked the main, and gentle airs that breath’d,
Or seemed to breathe, fresh fragrance from the shore.
On the last evening, a long, shadowy line
Skirted the sea;.. how fast the night clos’d in!
I stood upon the deck, and watch’d till dawn.
But who can tell what feelings fill’d my heart,
When, like a cloud, the distant land arose
Gray from the ocean,.. when we left the ship,
And cleft, with rapid oars, the shallow wave,
And stood triumphant on another world!
V.
Madoc had paused awhile; but every eye
Still watch’d his lips, and every voice was hush’d.
Soon as I leaped ashore, pursues the Lord
Of Ocean, prostrate on my face I fell,
Kiss’d the dear earth, and pray’d with thankful tears.
Hard by, a brook was flowing;.. never yet,
Even from the gold-tipped horn of victory,
With harp and song, amid my father’s hall,
Pledged I so sweet a draught, as lying there,
Beside that streamlet’s brink!.. to feel the ground,
To quaff the cool, clear water, to inhale
The breeze of land, while fears and dangers past
Recurred and heighten’d joy, as summer storms
Make the fresh evening lovelier!
To the shore
The natives thronged; astonished, they beheld
Our winged barks, and gazed with wonderment
On the strange garb, the bearded countenance,
And the white skin, in all unlike themselves.
I see with what enquiring eyes you ask,
What men were they? Of dark-brown colour, tinged
With sunny redness; wild of eye; their brows
So smooth, as never yet anxiety,
Nor busy thought had made a furrow there;
Beardless, and each to each of lineaments
So like, they seemed but one gr
eat family.
Their loins were loosely cinctur’d, all beside
Bare to the sun and wind; and thus their limbs,
Unmanacled, display’d the truest forms
Of strength and beauty: fearless, sure, they were,
And, while they eyed us, grasp’d their spears, as if,
Like Britain’s injur’d but unconquer’d sons,
They, too, had known how perilous it was
To let an arm’d stranger set his foot
In their free country.
Soon the guise
Of men, nor purporting nor fearing ill
Gained confidence; their wild, distrustful looks
Assumed a milder meaning; over one
I cast my mantle, on another’s head
The velvet bonnet placed, and all was joy.
We now besought for food; at once they read
Our gestures; but I cast a hopeless eye
On hills and thickets, woods and marshy plains,
A waste of rank luxuriance all around.
Thus musing, to a lake I follow’d them,
Left when the rivers to their summer course
Withdrew; they scattered on its water drugs
Of such strange potency, that soon the shoals,
Coop’d there by Nature, prodigally kind,
Floated inebriate. As I gaz’d, a deer
Sprung from the bordering thicket: the true shaft
Scarce with the distant victim’s blood had stain’d
Its point, when instantly he dropped and died,
Such deadly juice imbued it; yet on this
We made our meal unharm’d; and I perceiv’d
The wisest leech, that ever in our world
Culled herbs of hidden virtue, was to these
Even as an infant
Sorrowing we beheld
The night come on; but soon did night display
More wonders than it veil’d: innumerous tribes
From the wood-cover swarm’d, and darkness made
Their beauties visible; one while they stream’d
A bright-blue radiance upon flowers that clos’d
Their gorgeous colors from the eye of day;
Now, motionless and dark, eluded search,
Self-shrouded; and anon, starring the sky,
Rose like a shower of fire.
Our friendly hosts
Now led us to the hut, our that night’s home,
A rude and spacious dwelling: twisted boughs,
And canes and withies form’d the walls and roof;
And, from the unhewn trunks which pillar’d it,
Low nets of interwoven reeds were hung.
With shouts of honour, here they gather’d round me,
Ungarmented my limbs, and in a net,
With softest feathers lin’d, a pleasant couch,
They laid and left me.
To our ships return’d,
After soft sojourn here, we coasted on,
Insatiate of the wonders and the charms
Of earth and air and sea. Thy summer woods
Are lovely, O my mother isle! the birch
Light bending on thy banks, thy elmy vales,
Thy venerable oaks!.. but there, what forms
Of beauty cloth’d the inlands and the shore!
All these in stateliest growth, and, mixt with these,
Dark-spreading cedar, and the cypress tall,
Its pointed summit waving to the wind,
Like a long beacon-flame; and, loveliest
Amid a thousand strange and lovely shapes,
The lofty palm, that with its nuts supplied
Beverage and food: they edged the shore, and crowned
The far off mountain summits, their straight stems
Bare, without leaf or bough, erect and smooth,
Their tresses nodding like a crested helm,
The plumage of the grove.
Will ye believe
The wonders of the ocean? how its shoals
Sprang from the wave, like flashing light;.. took wing,
And, twinkling with a silver glitterance,
Flew through the air and sunshine? yet were they
To sight less wondrous than the tribe who swam,
Following like fowlers, with uplifted eye,
Their falling quarry:.. language cannot paint
Their splendid tints! though in blue ocean seen,
Blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,
In all its rich variety of shades,
Suffus’d with glowing gold.
Heaven, too, had there
Its wonders:... from a deep, black, heavy cloud,
What shall I say?.. a shoot,.. a trunk,.. an arm
Came down;.. yea! like a demon’s arm, it seized
The waters: Ocean smok’d beneath its touch,
And rose, like dust before the whirlwind’s force.
But we sailed onward over tranquil seas,
Wafted by airs so exquisitely mild,
That even to breathe became an act
Of will, and sense and pleasure! Not a cloud
With purple islanded the dark-blue deep.
By night, the quiet billows heav’d and glanced
Under the moon,.. that heavenly noon! so bright,
That many a midnight have I paced the deck,
Forgetful of the hours of due repose;
By day, the Sun, in his full majesty,
Went forth like God beholding his own works.
Once, when a chief was feasting us on shore,
A captive served the food: I mark’d the youth,
For he had features of a gentler race;
And oftentimes his eye was fix’d on me,
With looks of more than wonder. We return’d
At evening to our ships; at night a voice
Came from the sea, the intelligible voice
Of earnest supplication: he had swam
To trust our mercy; up the side he sprung,
And look’d among the crew, and, singling me,
Fell at my feet. Such friendly tokenings
As our short commerce with the native tribes
Had taught, I proffer’d, and sincerity
Gave force and meaning to the half-learnt forms;
For one we needed who might speak for us,
And well I liked the youth, the open lines
Which character’d his face, the fearless heart,
Which gave at once, and won full confidence.
So that night at my feet Lincoya slept.
When I displayed whate’er might gratify,
Whate’er surprise, with most delight he view’d
Our arms, the iron helm, the pliant mail,
The buckler strong to save; and then he shook
The lance, and grasp’d the sword, and turn’d to me
With vehement words and gestures, every limb
Working with one strong passion; and he placed
The falchion in my hand, and gave the shield,
And pointed south and west, that I should go,
To conquer and protect; anon he wept
Aloud, and clasp’d my knees, and, falling, fain
He would have kiss’d my feet. Went we to shore?
Then would he labor restlessly to show
A better place lay onward; and in the sand
To south and west he drew the line of coast,
And figur’d how a mighty river there
Ran to the sea. The land bent westward soon,
And, thus confirm’d, we voyaged on to seek
The river inlet, following at the will
Of our new friend; and we learnt after him,
Well pleased and proud to teach, what this was call’d,
What that, with no unprofitable toil.
Nor light the joy I felt at hearing first
The pleasant accents of my native tongue,
Albeit in broken words and tones uncouth,
Come fro
m these foreign lips.
At length we came
Where the great river, amid shoals and banks
And islands, growth of its own gathering spoils,
Through many a branching channel, wide and full,
Rushed to the main. The gale was strong; and safe,
Amid the uproar of conflicting tides,
Our gallant vessels rode. A stream as broad,
And turbid, when it leaves the Land of Hills,
Old Severn rolls; but banks so fair as these
Old Severn views not in his Land of Hills,
Nor even where his turbid waters swell
And sully the salt sea.
So we sail’d on
By shores now cover’d with impervious woods,
Now stretching wide and low, a reedy waste,
And now through vales where earth profusely pour’d
Her treasures, gathered from the first of days.
Sometimes a savage tribe would welcome us,
By wonder from their lethargy of life
Awakened; then again we voyaged on
Through tracts all desolate, for days and days,
League after league, one green and fertile mead,
That fed a thousand herds.
A different scene
Rose on our view, of mount on mountain pil’d,
Which when I see again in memory,
The giant Cader Idris by their bulk
Is dwarfed, and Snowdon, with its eagle haunts,
Shrinks, and seems dwindled like a Saxon hill.
Here, with Cadwallon and a chosen band,
I left the ships. Lincoya guided us
A toilsome way among the heights. At dusk,
We reach’d the village skirts; he bade us halt,
And raised his voice: the elders of the land
Came forth, and led us to an ample hut,
Which in the centre of their dwellings stood,..
The Stranger’s House. They eyed us wondering,
Yet not for wonder ceas’d they to observe
Their hospitable rites; from hut to hut
The tidings spread the tale that strangers were arriv’d,
Fatigued and hungry, and athirst; anon,
Each from his means supplying us, came food
And beverage, such as cheers the weary man.
VI.
At morning, their high-priest, Ayayaca,
Came with our guide: the venerable man
Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey Page 60