Look too hastily at the map, and miss something that is really on the other roadway. We missed Tintern Abbey because its dot looked on one road, when it turned out to be on the other. Here it is: go to www.castlewales.com/tintern. It is Cistercian, from 1131 or so. It is the subject of a poem by William Wordsworth from 1798 - read it at bartleby.com/145/ww138. The consolation is that there are other ruins, but this is supposed to be in such fine condition.
Back to Wordsworth: his poem is in blank verse - 10 syllables to a line. Count them. Now try it. Now, read your own verses. Not sound the same? Go back to Wordsworth. See where the emphasis always is - da DUM, da DUM, da DUM, da Dum, da DUM. Five dums.
Not anything else. Like Shakespeare - try reading his lines the same way, when he uses that iambic pentameter. Look up iambic (the pattern of stressed syllables) pentameter (in groupings of 5) at ca.essortment.com/blankversepoet_rjwh and see that you can represent that da DUM in fancy form - as x /. The unstressed foot followed by the stressed foot. Fun, huh? See how you can miss a sight and still get a great deal out of following up on it anyway.
To Wales! The tourist cries when close at hand.
Head west, then north, to castles and their moats.
The language locked against your ken. But give
Not up, but order anything you see.
A leek, some lamb, a chorus. Fine, these Celts.
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