Mythology & Folklore

The Wife of Llew

by Francis Ledwidge 1887–1917

From Songs of the Fields (1915)

Mythology & FolkloreNature

And Gwydion said to Math, when it was Spring:
"Come now and let us make a wife for Llew."
And so they broke broad boughs yet moist with dew,
And in a shadow made a magic ring:
They took the violet and the meadow-sweet
To form her pretty face, and for her feet
They built a mound of daisies on a wing,
And for her voice they made a linnet sing
In the wide poppy blowing for her mouth.
And over all they chanted twenty hours.
And Llew came singing from the azure south
And bore away his wife of birds and flowers.

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From the Welsh Mabinogion: in Spring the magicians Gwydion and Math make a wife of boughs and flowers for Llew. He carries away 'his wife of birds and flowers'.

MLA

Ledwidge, Francis. “The Wife of Llew.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/8/.

Chicago

Ledwidge, Francis. “The Wife of Llew.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/8/.

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