Poet Mohini Gupta reads from Dorothy Bonarjee's Eisteddfod-winning poem

Indian student Dorothy Bonarjeee won the University College of Wales Eisteddfod in 1914 with a poem on the subject of the Welsh soldier, Owain Lawgoch.

The poem had to be written according to a prescribed metre and length. Dorothy Bonarjee wrote in English rather than Welsh, which was permissible in 1914.

Here, the Indian poet Mohini Gupta reads the 10th stanza of the winning poem, and the final lines:

He told him of the lonely rock-strewn shore,

The dark, brown sea-weed lying on the sand.

The wild black spirits of the storm, that tore

The heart from out the water. And the land

That lies in quivering, weary agony

Beneath the lashes of the thundering waves.

But sometimes when the nights are still and fair

The water ripples softly round the caves.

And peace falls from the stars on land and sea,

Sweet peace down-falling through the dew-filled air.

...

Death is a rest. So Greatness sleeps a space -

And this is night - but after comes the Dawn

With golden rays to lighten every place.