Day 27: Another by Idris Davies

Another poem by Idris Davies for today.  From the Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English, Gwyn Jones, editor. 


CONSIDER FAMOUS MEN, DAI BACH

Consider famous men, Dai bach, consider famous men,
All their slogans, all their deeds,
And follow the funerals to the grave.
Consider the charlatans, the shepherds of the sheep!
Consider the grease upon the tongue, the hunger of the purse!
Consider the fury of the easy words,
The vulgarity behind the brass,
The dirty hands that shook the air, that stained the sky!
Yet some there were who lived for you,
Who lay to die remembering you.

Mabon was your champion once upon a time
And his portrait’s on the milk-jug yet.
The world has bred no champions for a long time now,
Except the boxing, tennis, golf, and Fascist kind,
And the kind that democracy breeds and feeds for Harringay,
And perhaps the world has grown too bitter or too wise
To breed a prophet or a poet ever again.


This and other poems by Idris Davies have been collected on-line by another blogger, and are available at http://dru-withoutamap.blogspot.com/2009/07/poetry-of-idris-davies.html.