| |
| LOW to himself beneath the sun, | |
| While soft his dusky waters run, | |
| With ripple calm as infant’s breath, | |
| An ancient song Usk murmureth, | |
| By the bridge of Aberhonddu. | 5 |
| |
| ’T is not of deeds of old, the song, | |
| Llewellyn’s fate, or Gwalia’s wrong; | |
| But how, while we have each our day | |
| And then are not, he runs for aye. | |
| |
| He sees the baby dip its feet | 10 |
| Within his limpid waters sweet; | |
| And hears when youth and passion speak | |
| What strikes to flame the maiden’s cheek. | |
| |
| Then manhood’s colors tamed to gray, | |
| With his fair child the father gay: | 15 |
| And then Old Age, who creeps to view | |
| The stream his feet in boyhood knew. | |
| |
| From days before the iron cry | |
| Of Roman legions rent the sky, | |
| Since man with wolf held brutish strife, | 20 |
| Usk sees the flow and ebb of life. | |
| |
| As mimic whirlpools on his face, | |
| Orb after orb, each other chase, | |
| And gleam and intersect and die, | |
| Our little circles eddy by. | 25 |
| |
| But those fair waters run for aye | |
| While to himself,—Where’er they stray, | |
| All footsteps lead at last to Death, | |
| His ancient song, Usk murmureth | |
By the bridge of Aberhonddu.
END OF VOL. IV. | 30 |
| |
