Thee
  The Heron and the Weather-Vane
  The Three Mirrors
  The Two Clocks
  Sacrifical: on the Execution of Two Greek Sailors at Swansea
  Wales to "Punch"
  Welcome!
  Change
  False as Fair
  Heads and Hearts
  Fall of Sebastopol
  To Lord Derby
  Unrequited
  The Household Spirit
  Had I a Heart
  A Bridal Simile
  Song
  I would my Love
  Death in Life
  Song of the Strike
  Nature's Heroes: the Rhondda Valley Disaster
  Elegy on the Death of a Little Child
  Magdalene
  Love Walks with Humanity Yet
  The Two Trees
  Stanzas
  Verses, written after Reading a Biography of His Grace the
    Duke of Beaufort
  A Simile
  The Two Sparrows
  Floating Away
  A Floral Fable
  Ring Down the Curtain
  The Telegraph Post
  Breaking on the Shore
  Hurrah! for the Rifle Corps
  Be Careful when you Find a Friend
  Brotherly Love
  England and France
  Against the Stream
  Wrecked in Sight of Home
  Sonnet
  Sebastopol is Won
  Hold Your Tongue
  My Mother's Portrait
  Never More
  Lines on the Death of the Rev. Canon Jenkins, Vicar of Aberdare
  Filial Ingratitude
  The Vine and the Sunflower
  POETIC PROVERBS:
     I.—Danger in Surety
    II.—A Wise Son
   III.—Hope Deferred
    IV.—Virtue's Crown
     V.—Sorrow in Mirth
  Christmas Anticipations
  Golden Tresses
  Hope for the Best
  Gone Before
  Henry Bath: Died October 14th, 1864
  Song of the Worker
  The Brooklet's Ambition
  St. Valentine's Eve
  Lost
  Lilybell
  Gone
  Life Dreams
  Aeolus and Aurora; or, the Music of the Gods
  Sonnet
  Sleeping in the Snow
  With the Rain
  Ode, on the Death of a Friend
  Lines: to a Young Lady who had jilted her Lover
  Vicarious Martyrs: to a Hen-pecked Schoolmaster
  Stanzas: on seeing Lady Noel Byron
  To Louisa
  The Orator and the Cask
  The Maid of the War
  Impromptu: on being asked by a Lady to write a Verse in her Album
  Mary: a Monody
  On the Marriage of Miss Nicholl Carne
  Impromptu: on the Death of Mr. Thomas Kneath, a well-known
    Teacher of Navigation, at Swansea
  EXTRACTS FROM UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT:
    Humility Oppressed
    Upward Strivings
    Truthfulness
    Love's Influence
    Value of Adversity
    Misguiding Appearances
    Virgin Purity
    Man's Destiny
    Love's Incongruities
    Retribution
    Love's Mutability
    A Mother's Advice
  Sunrise in the Country
  Faith in Love
  Unrequited Affection
  The Poet's Troubles
  Echoes from the City
  Love's Wiles
  Hazard in Love
  A Mother's Love
  "The Shadow of the Cross"
  Curates and Colliers: on reading in a Comic Paper absurd
    comparisons between the wages of Curates and Colliers
  Wanted—a Wife: a Voice from the Ladies
  Sympathy
  A Fragment
  Law versus Theology: on an Eminent County Court Judge
  The Broken Model
  Impromptu: on an Inveterate Spouter
  A Character
  Couplet
  Pause: on the hesitation of the Czar to Force a Passage of
    the Danube, June, 1877
  The Test of the Stick
  Note: concerning Iuan Wyllt, an Eisteddfod at Neath, and
    a First Prize Poem

TO THE

MOST HONOURABLE THE MARQUESS OF BUTE:

WITH A GRATEFUL SENSE OF HIS LORDSHIP'S GENEROUS AND

OTHERWISE DISINTERESTED DESIRE,

IN ACCEPTING THE DEDICATION OF THE WORK,

TO ALONE FURTHER THE VIEWS AND ENCOURAGE THE LITERARY

ASPIRATIONS OF THE WRITER,

THIS VOLUME,

BY HIS LORDSHIP'S PERMISSION,

IS DEDICATED,

WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECTFUL ADMIRATION OF HIS

TALENT AND WORTH,

BY HIS LORDSHIP'S OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

DEATH OF SAUL.

PRIZE POEM.

WREXHAM NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD, 1876.

"The Vicar of Wrexham delivered his award on the 28 poems in English or Welsh, on 'The Death of Saul' ('Marwolaeth Saul'). The prize 5 pounds 5s. was given by Dr. Williams, Chairman of the Committee, and a gold medal was given by the Committee. The Vicar said the best composition was an English poem, signed 'David.' It was written in a style well adapted to the subject, in language dignified and sonorous, with not a little of the rhythmic cadence of Paradise Lost. It was real poetry; suggestive, and at times deeply impressive—the poetry of thought and culture, not of mere figure and fancy, and it was well calculated to do honour to its author, and to the National Eisteddfod of Wales. 'David' was among his fellow-competitors as Saul was amongst his brethren, higher than any of them from his shoulders upwards, and to him he awarded the prize which his poem well deserved."

HISTORICAL NOTE.

The design followed out in the succeeding poem has been to touch upon the leading historical incidents of Saul's career that lead up to and explain his tragic death on Mount Gilboa. With him, nearly 3,000 years ago, commenced the Monarchical government of the Israelites, who had previously been governed by a Theocracy. The Prophet Samuel, who anointed Saul, was the last of the High Priests or Judges under this Theocracy, which existed for 800 years, and died out with the acceptance of Saul, by the Israelites, as "King of all the tribes of Israel." The incidents touched upon range from the proclamation of Saul as King, by Samuel (1095 B.C.), to the fall of the hapless Monarch at the battle of Gilboa, 40 years afterwards.

Death of Saul

  As through the waves the freighted argosy
  Securely plunges, when the lode star's light
  Her path makes clear, and as, when angry clouds
  Obscure the guide that leads her on her way,
  She strikes the hidden rock and all is lost,
  So he of whom I sing—favoured of God,
  By disobedience dimmed the light divine
  That shone with bright effulgence like the sun,
  And sank in sorrow, where he might have soared
  Up to the loftiest peak of earthly joy
  In sweet foretaste of heavenly joys to come.
  Called from his flocks and herds in humble strait
  And made to rule a nation; high in Heaven
  The great Jehovah lighting up the way;
  On earth an upright Judge and Prophet wise
  Sent by the Lord to bend his steps aright;
  Sons dutiful and true; no speck to mar
  The noble grandeur of a proud career;
  Yet, from the rays that flickered o'er his path,
  Sent for his good, he wove the lightning shaft
  That seared his heart, e'en as the stalwart oak,
  Soaring in pride of pow'r, falls 'neath the