WEDDING RING (November 1973)

Posted by Admin on 30 March 2008, 12:00 am

Mined in the Cymric hills,
new and inaurate, and dug near
Dolgellau.
Take it to craftsmen,
workers in metal of price,
linked by tradition with Georgian
jewellers,
housed in a garret where
royal regalia go for refurbishing.
There on the work-worn benches,
aproned to capture all fugitive
grains,
let it be flattened, annealed, and
forged on a tapering triblet to
circle a woman’s third finger.
Lap it with stone, and abrade it
with tripoli:
burnish again and again with
rouge ’til refulgent and right to
connote
fanfares in Westminster Abbey – or
wifely fidelity.