We read that the
example of the trouvere aroused the Norman hosts to an enthusiasm which
precipitated them upon the Saxon ranks with unwonted courage and frenzy.
We also find that the Welsh bard always accompanied his prince to battle,
and rehearsed in song the ancient valour and conquests of the chieftain
and army in front of the enemy.
The progress of philosophy and science dissipates the myths and spectres
of the poetical creation, just as the advance of a July sun dispels the
mist and cloud which hung over the earlier hours of day and veiled the
mountains and valleys from the eye of man. Poetry becomes now shorn of
its greatest extravangancies and wildest flights, instead of soaring with
the eagle to the extremities of space, it flies like the falcon within
human sight. In lieu of a Homer, a Shakespeare and a Milton, we have a
Pope, a Thomson and a Campbell.
The poetry of Wales may be classified into six parts, viz.: the sublime,
the beautiful, the patriotic, the humourous, the sentimental and
religious. Much of the poetry of the Principality consists of the first
class, and is specially dedicated to description and praise of the
Supreme Being, the universe and man.
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