"The sixth-century world of the poet called Merlin of the Wilds is one of sharp contrasts: savage battles and rivalries are set against natural beauties part homely and part magical. It's a world in which the role of the poet is not just to sing but to prophesy to kings. Larry Beckett's renderings of Merlin's world and words, derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Vita Merlini
, are richly sonic and songlike, full of refrains, repetends, pulsing four-beat lines, and musical Welsh names. They make a distant world-picture-and a poet's enigmatic life-tangible for us, in laments and foretellings, histories and prayers."
- Maryann Corbett, winner of the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize .