[This appeared in my Facebook memories on 1 October 2024 and I realised I hadn’t added it to the website, so here it is, slightly edited.]
We made an expedition;
Thomas Love Peacock (1785—1866)
We met a host, and quelled it;
We forced a strong position,
And killed the men who held it.
Today is National Poetry Day, started by William Sieghart in 1994 and organised by the Forward Arts Foundation.
I am going to share a favourite poem of mine: The War Song of Dinas Vawr by Thomas Love Peacock. It is a tremendously bloody and violent poem, but that’s not why I like it. It has a great rhythm but that’s not the reason either. I like it because I remember my dad reading it out loud to us.
The War Song of Dinas Vawr
The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter;
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.
We made an expedition;
We met a host, and quelled it;
We forced a strong position,
And killed the men who held it.
On Dyfed’s richest valley,
Where herds of kine were browsing,
We made a mighty sally,
To furnish our carousing.
Fierce warriors rushed to meet us;
We met them, and o’erthrew them:
They struggled hard to beat us;
But we conquered them, and slew them.
As we drove our prize at leisure,
The king marched forth to catch us:
His rage surpassed all measure,
But his people could not match us.
He fled to his hall-pillars;
And, ere our force we led off,
Some sacked his house and cellars,
While others cut his head off.
We there, in strife bewild’ring,
Spilt blood enough to swim in:
We orphaned many children,
And widowed many women.
The eagles and the ravens
We glutted with our foemen;
The heroes and the cravens,
The spearmen and the bowmen.
We brought away from battle,
And much their land bemoaned them,
Two thousand head of cattle,
And the head of him who owned them:
Ednyfed, king of Dyfed,
His head was borne before us;
His wine and beasts supplied our feasts,
And his overthrow, our chorus.
Links
- Listen to Dylan Thomas read the poem on YouTube. There is a brief introduction by “The Colonel”.
- Read about National Poetry Day at Forward Arts Foundation.
- Read about National Poetry Day at Wikipedia.