The Bard (poem) The Bard (poem) The Bard. A Pindaric Ode (1757) is a poem by Thomas Gray, set at the time of Edward I's conquest of Wales. Inspired partly by his researches into medieval history and literature, partly by his discovery of Welsh harp music, it was itself a potent influence on future generations of poets and painters, seen by many as the first creative work of the Celtic Revival and as lying at the root of the Romantic movement in Britain. As the victorious army of Edward I marches along the slopes of the Snowdonian mountains near to the river Conwy
The Bard (poem) they encounter a Welsh bard, who curses the king. The bard invokes the shades of Cadwallo, Urien and Modred, three of Edward's victims, who weave the fate of Edward's Plantagenet line, dwelling on the various miseries and misfortunes of his descendants. The bard goes on to predict the return of Welsh rule over Britain in the form of the house of Tudor, and the flowering of British poetry in the verse of Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton. Finally he tells Edward: "With joy I seeThe different dooms our Fates assign.Be thine Despair, and sceptred Care;To triumph, and to die, are mine.He