The Dream (Dafydd ap Gwilym poem)

Sleeping, the poet dreams that he has released his greyhounds in a wood and that they have found and pursued a white doe over mountainous terrain.

She tells him that the dream is a good omen: the hounds were his llateion (love-messengers), and the doe was the lady he loves, who will turn to him at last.

[5] Amongst the key manuscripts are National Library of Wales MS 3057D (Mostyn 161), a collection of poetry made in the Conwy Valley sometime between 1558 and 1563, perhaps for the Gwydir family; Cardiff Central Library MS 4.330 (Hafod 26), a collection of most of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poems (along with some by other poets) made in the Conwy Valley about 1574 by the lexicographer Thomas Wiliems; and British Library MS Stowe 959 (BM 48), which was made in Carmarthenshire c. 1600.

The vocabulary of the poem is quite simple, no compound words being used, and so is the style: there is nowhere any ambiguity or depth of meaning.

[8] In earlier Welsh literature, as in Dafydd's poem, the object of the hunt is often a white doe.