 Youth on the Prow , and Pleasure at the Helm was inspired by a passage in Thomas Gray 's poem The Bard . The theme of The Bard was the English king Edward I 's conquest of Wales , and a curse placed by a Welsh bard upon Edward 's descendants after he ordered the execution of all bards and the eradication of Welsh culture . Etty used a passage Gray intended to symbolise the seemingly bright start to the disastrous reign of Edward 's great @-@ great @-@ grandson Richard II . 
