of the most spirited of them is the following, which the
Author calls his "Hanes" or history.

The head Bard's place I hold
To Elphin, Chieftain bold;
The country of my birth
Was the Cherubs' land of mirth;
I from the prophet John
The name of Merddin won;
And now the Monarchs all
Me Taliesin call.

My inspiration's {74} flame
From Cridwen's cauldron came;
Nine months was I in gloom
In Sorceress Cridwen's womb;
Though late a child--I'm now
The Bard of splendid brow {75};
When roar'd the deluge dark,
I with Noah trod the Ark.

By the sleeping man I stood
When the rib grew flesh and blood.
To Moses strength I gave
Through Jordan's holy wave;
The thrilling tongue was I
To Enoch and Elie;
I hung the cross upon,
Where died the .....................

A chair of little rest
'Bove the Zodiac I prest,
Which doth ever, in a sphere,
Through three elements career;
I've sojourn'd in Gwynfryn,
In the halls of Cynfelyn;
To the King the harp I play'd,
Who Lochlyn's sceptre sway'd.

With the Israelites of yore
I endur'd a hunger sore;
In Africa I stray'd
Ere was Rome's foundation laid;
Now hither I have hied
With the race of Troy to bide;
In the firmament I've been
With Mary Magdalen.

I work'd as mason-lord
When Nimrod's pile up-soar'd;
I mark'd the dread rebound
When its ruins struck the ground;
When strode to victory on
The men of Macedon,
The bloody flag before
The heroic King I bore.

I saw the end with horror
Of Sodom and Gomorrah!
And with this very eye
Have seen the . . . ;
I till the judgment day
Upon the earth shall stray:
None knows for certainty
Whether fish or flesh I be.

EPIGRAM.

On a Miser who had built a stately Mansion.
From the Cambrian British.

Of every pleasure is thy mansion void;
To ruin-heaps may soon its walls decline.
O heavens, that one poor fire's but employ'd,
One poor fire only for thy chimneys nine!

Towering white chimneys--kitchen cold and drear--
Chimneys of vanity and empty show--
Chimneys unwarm'd, unsoil'd throughout the year--
Fain would I heatless chimneys overthrow.

Plague on huge chimneys, say I, huge and neat,
Which ne'er one spark of genial warmth announce;
Ignite some straw, thou dealer in deceit--
Straw of starv'd growth--and make a fire for once!

The wretch a palace built, whereon to gaze,
And sighing, shivering there around to stray;
To give a penny would the niggard craze,
And worse than bane he hates the minstrel's lay.