Madoc (poem) facts for kids
Madoc is a long poem by Robert Southey. The author is famous as the third of the Lake Poets. Madoc is an epic poem. It was first published in 1805. The poet worked on the poem for ten years. It tells about legendary Welsh prince Madog, ab Owain Gwynedd. He lived in 12th century. According to the legend, he explored America long before Christopher Columbus. The poem is divided into two parts. The first is named Madoc in Wales while the second Madoc in Aztlan. The poem is written in Blank verse that is in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Fair blows the wind, the vessel drives along,
Her streamers fluttering at their length, her sails
All full, she drives along, and round her prow
Scatters the ocean spray. What feelings then
Filled every bosom, when the mariners,
After the peril of that weary way,
Beheld their own dear country ! Here stands one,
Stretching his sight toward the distant shore,
And, as to well known forms his busy joy
Shapes the dim outline, eagerly he points
The fancied headland and the cape and bay,
Till his eyes ache, o'erstraining.
The poem was reviewed in The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry.
Irish poet Paul Muldoon named his book Madoc: A Mystery (1990) after Robert Southey's poem.
