Anglesey

Ballad of Anglesey

This is an island written in stone

Of hunters, warriors, poets and song

They came through the forests of northern Wales

Thousands of years way before Christ

Following deer by day and by night;

 

Across the tracks and across the trails

Here come the hunters to Anglesey

Gathering roots, gathering berries

Collecting mussels from the Swellies

Making weapons of wood, flint and bone

Settlements form – it’s the Age of Stone.

 

They cleared the woods and planted crops

Wool, skins and meat came from livestock

Burial chambers they built from that stone

They started to worship the sun as it shone.

They made their tools from iron, copper and bronze

And built their forts on headlands and hills.

 

The culture of Celts swept in on the tide

Warriors fierce tribe by tribe;

There were priests, lawmakers, druids in robes

Worshipping figures and hero-gods

Battling against the English invaders

Battling against those from Rome

Wars were won and some were lost

Fighting to make this island their home.

 

The Vikings came, then Edward the First

But Owain Glyndwr felt the land to be cursed

Then a man from Penmynydd took the English throne

An uneasy settling was felt in Welsh bones;

 

They were farming, smuggling, mining the earth

When action came with a Civil War

And the year was now 1644.

But no backwater here as poetry thrives

Men of letters, Welsh scholars are a sign of the times.

 

The Industrial Revolution transformed the isle

With new roads, railways and mines

Now this beautiful island with two bridges,

Beaches, hills, sand dunes and farms

Castles, rocks, gorse and heather

A sky so big you can touch the stars

Venus, Jupiter and Mars. 

 

Yes, this is a place written in stone

And here I am but a grain of dust

But love this land, love this island

I do, I will, I must.

 

Meg Marsden copyright/August 2015