Fingal - Book Vi Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B C D C E D C C E F G| ARGUMENT | A |
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| Night comes on Fingal gives a feast to his army at which Swaran is present The king commands Ullin his bard to give the song of peace a custom always observed at the end of a war Ullin relates the actions of Trenmor great grandfather to Fingal in Scandinavia and his marriage with Inibaca the daughter of a king of Lochlin who was ancestor to Swaran which consideration together with his being brother to Agandecca with whom Fingal was in love in his youth induced the king to release him and permit him to return with the remains of his army into Lochlin upon his promise of never returning to Ireland in a hostile manner The night is spent in settling Swaran's departure in songs of bards and in a conversation in which the story of Grumal is introduced by Fingal Morning comes Swaran departs Fingal goes on a hunting party and finding Cuthullin in the cave of Tura comforts him and sets sail the next day for Scotland which concludes the poem | B |
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| THE clouds of night came rolling down Darkness rests on the steeps of Cromla The stars of the north arise over the rolling of Erin's waves they show their heads of fire through the flying mist of heaven A distant wind roars in the wood Silent and dark is the plain of death Still on the dusky Lena arose in my ears the voice of Carril He sung of the friends of our youth the days of former years when we met on the banks of Lego when we sent round the joy of the shell Cromla answered to his voice The ghosts of those he sung came in their rustling winds They were seen to bend with joy towards the sound of their praise | C |
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| Be thy soul blest O Carril in the midst of thy eddying winds O that thou wouldst come to my hall when I am alone by night And thou dost come my friend I hear often thy light hand on my harp when it hangs on the distant wall and the feeble sound touches my ear Why dost thou not speak to me in my grief and tell when I shall behold my friends But thou passest away in thy murmuring blast the wind whistles through the gray hair of Ossian | D |
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| Now on the side of Mora the heroes gathered to the feast A thousand aged oaks are burning to the wind The strength of the shell goes round The souls of warriors brighten with joy But the king of Lochlin is silent Sorrow reddens in the eyes of his pride He often turned towards Lena He remembered that he fell Fingal leaned on the shield of his fathers His gray locks slowly waved on the wind and glittered to the beam of night He saw the grief of Swaran and spoke to the first of bards | C |
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| Raise Ullin raise the song of peace O soothe my soul from war Let mine ear forget in the sound the dismal noise of arms Let a hundred harps be near to gladden the king of Lochlin He must depart from us with joy None ever went sad from Fingal Oscar the lightning of my sword is against the strong in fight Peaceful it lies by my side when warriors yield in war | E |
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| Trenmor said the mouth of songs lived in the days of other years He bounded over the waves of the north companion of the storm The high reeks of the land of Lochlin its groves of murmuring sounds appeared to the hero through mist he bound his white bosomed sails Trenmor pursued the boar that roared through the woods of Gormal Many had fled from its presence but it rolled in death on the spear of Trenmor Three chiefs who beheld the deed told of the mighty stranger They told that he stood like a pillar of fire in the bright arms of his valor The king of Lochlin prepared the feast He called the blooming Trenmor Three days he feasted at Gormal's windy towers and received his choice in the combat The land of Lochlin had no hero that yielded not to Trenmor The shell of joy went round with songs in praise of the king of Morven He that came over the waves the first of mighty men | D |
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| Now when the fourth gray morn arose the hero launched his ship He walked along the silent shore and called for the rushing wind for loud and distant he heard the blast murmuring behind the groves Covered over with arms of steel a son of the woody Gormal appeared Red was his cheek and fair his hair His skin was like the snow of Morven Mild rolled his blue and smiling eye when he spoke to the king of swords | C |
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| 'Stay Trenmor stay thou first of men thou hast not conquered Lonval's son My sword has often met the brave The wise shun the strength of my bow ' 'Thou fair haired youth ' Trenmor replied 'I will not fight with Lonval's son Thine arm is feeble sunbeam of youth Retire to Gormal's dark brown hinds ' 'But I will retire ' replied the youth 'with the sword of Trenmor and exult in the sound of my fame The virgins shall gather with smiles around him who conquered mighty Trenmor They shall sigh with the sighs of love and admire the length of thy spear when I shall carry it among thousands when I lift the glittering point to the sun ' | - |
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| 'Thou shalt never carry my spear ' said the angry king of Morven 'Thy mother shall find thee pale on the shore and looking over the dark blue deep see the sails of him that slew her son ' 'I will not lift the spear ' replied the youth 'my arm is not strong with years But with the feathered dart I have learned to pierce a distant foe Throw down that heavy mail of steel Trenmor is covered from death I first will lay my mail on earth Throw now thy dart thou king of Morven ' He saw the heaving of her breast It was the sister of the king She had seen him in the hall and loved his face of youth The spear dropt from the hand of Trenmor he bent his red cheek to the ground She was to him a beam of light that meets the sons of the cave when they revisit the fields of the sun and bend their aching eyes | C |
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| 'Chief of the windy Morven ' began the maid of the arms of snow 'let me rest in thy bounding ship far from the love of Corlo For he like the thunder of the desert is terrible to Inibaca He loves me in the gloom of pride He shakes ten thousand spears ' ' Rest thou in peace ' said the mighty Trenmor 'rest behind the shield of my fathers I will not fly from the chief though he shakes ten thousand spears ' Three days he waited on the shore He sent his horn abroad He called Corlo to battle from all his echoing hills But Corlo came not to battle The king of Lochlin descends from his hall He feasted on the roaring shore He gave the maid to Trenmor | E |
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| King of Lochlin said Fingal thy blood flows in the veins of thy foe Our fathers met in battle because they loved the strife of spears But often did they feast in the hall and send round the joy of the shell Let thy thee brighten with gladness and thine ear delight in the harp Dreadful as the storm of thine ocean thou hast poured thy valor forth thy voice has been like the voice of thousands when they engage in war Raise to morrow raise thy white sails to the wind thou brother of Agandecca Bright as the beam of noon she comes on my mournful soul I have seen thy tears for the fair one I spared thee in the halls of Starno when my sword was red with slaughter when my eye was full of tears for the maid Or dost thou choose the fight The combat which thy fathers gave to Trenmor is thine that thou mayest depart renowned like the sun setting in the west | F |
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| King of the race of Morven said the chief of resounding Lochlin never will Swaran fight with thee first of a thousand heroes I have seen thee in the halls of Starno few were thy years beyond my own When shall I I said to my soul lift the spear like the noble Fingal We have fought heretofore O warrior on the side of the shaggy Malmor after my waves had carried me to thy halls and the feast of a thousand shells was spread Let the bards send his name who overcame to future years for noble was the strife of Malmor But many of the ships of Lochlin have lost their youths on Lena Take these thou king of Morv | G |
James Macpherson
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