The Mirror (poem)

[2] The poem describes how Dafydd, languishing with lovesickness for an unnamed Gwynedd woman, is appalled by the wasted appearance of his face in the mirror.

[5] Much to his surprise the poet's mirror has told him that he is not handsome but – on account of a girl – sallow-faced, sharp-nosed and hollow-eyed, and his hair is falling out.

The other group of manuscripts, giving a text of the poem that derives from the now-lost 15th-century White Book of Hergest, include Peniarth 49, compiled over a long period in the early 17th century by John Davies of Mallwyd, and Wynnstay 2, a mid-17th century manuscript by William Bodwrda.

[13][9][14] Dafydd attributes his plight to a girl whom he compares to the heroine of one of Three Welsh Romances in the Mabinogion.

Each of these names appears in several other poems by Dafydd ap Gwilym, used as a standard of comparison for beauty.

An anonymous 19th century imaginary portrait of Dafydd ap Gwilym.
Detail of an illumination from the 14th-century De Lisle Psalter , BL Arundel MS 83, f.126v. It depicts a young man using a comb and a hand mirror of the kind Dafydd describes in this poem. [ 9 ]