58
THE ECHO ROCK.
The bard accuses the echo of having prevented him from meeting Morvyth.
Yon old bald rock and rugged stones,
That peer and totter o’er the dell,
And murmur forth unearthly tones
Like some base witch that casts a spell,
Babble more wildly after rain
Than seven-locked Merddin[1] the insane!
As that loquacious summit near
I watched for Morvyth to appear,
By those delusive tones betrayed,
Our footsteps far asunder strayed;
Like old Hu Gadarn’s oxen twain[2],
I called to her—and she to me—
But still, with wicked mimickry,
That traitor answered us again;
And to the softest tones I sighed,
He still perfidiously replied:
And thus we failed, “my golden glaive,”
To meet beside the mountain cave.
- ↑ ‘Merddin Wyllt,’ or ‘Merddin of the seven locks,’ an ancient Welsh poet who was at times affected with madness in consequence of having killed his nephew.
- ↑ This is an allusion to an old Welsh mythological story, that a personage of the name of Hu Gadarn caused a deluge to subside by dragging a beaver out of the waters with two ‘hump-backed’ oxen.
