All was quiet long since, the flash and bruit
of cannon, the muskets’ crackle, the scream of wounded
men and horses, the soil of Waterloo enriched
with blood and corpses, acid smoke and corpse-reek
blown away, army remnants straggled back
or limped to farm and town, Wellington
and Blücher robed in glory, able to enjoy
again the hunt and hearth-fires toasting feet,
Napoleon safely sealed on St Helena.
And doughty Welshmen by the Irish Sea
built of stone a silent, during cannon
pointing skyward from the crown, within
the earthwork of their forebears’ ancient hill-fort.
Perhaps in part a gesture of support for Breton
cousins, in part from victory mood they raised
to stab against the sky that mute but mighty
finger to the French, or was it to Wellington?
The monument on Pen Dinas at Aberystwyth looks like a chimney, but it is actually a cannon. It was built in 1852 as a tribute to the Duke of Wellington, the victor of the Battle of Waterloo.