Temora - Book Ii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B B C B D E D D F G H D H I| ARGUMENT | A |
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| This book opens we may suppose about midnight with a soliloquy of Ossian who had retired from the rest of the army to mourn for his son Oscar Upon hearing the noise of Cathmor's army approaching he went to find out his brother Fillan who kept the watch on the hill of Mora in the front of Fingal's army In the conversation of the brothers the episode of Conar the son of Trenmor who was the first king of Ireland is introduced which lays open the origin of the contests between the Gael and the Fir bolg the two nations who first possessed themselves of that island Ossian kindles a fire on Mora upon which Cathmor desisted from the design he had formed of surprising the army of the Caledonians He calls a council of his chiefs reprimands Foldath for advising a night attack as the Irish were so much superior in number to the enemy The bard Fonar introduces the story of Crothar the ancestor of the king which throws further light on the history of Ireland and the original pretensions of the family of Atha to the throne of that kingdom The Irish chiefs lie down to rest and Cathmor himself undertakes the watch In his circuit round the army he is met by Ossian The interview of the two heroes is described Cathmor obtains a promise from Ossian to order a funeral elegy to be sung over the grave of Cairbar it being the opinion of the times that the souls of the dead could not be happy till their elegies were sung by a bard Morning comes Cathmor and Ossian part and the latter casually meeting with Carril the son of Kinfena sends that bard with a funeral song to the tomb of Cairbar | B |
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| FATHER of heroes O Trenmor High dweller of eddying winds where the dark red thunder marks the troubled clouds Open thou thy stormy halls Let the bards of old be near Let them draw near with songs and their half viewless harps No dweller of misty valley comes No hunter unknown at his streams It is the car borne Oscar from the field of war Sudden is thy change my son from what thou wert on dark Moi lena The blast folds thee in its skirt and rustles through the sky Dost thou not behold thy father at the stream of night The chiefs of Morven sleep far distant They have lost no son But ye have lost a hero chiefs of resounding Morven Who could equal his strength when battle rolled against his side like the darkness of crowded waters Why this cloud on Ossian's soul It ought to burn in danger Erin is near with her host The king of Selma is alone Alone thou shalt not be my father while I can lift the spear | B |
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| I rose in all my arms I rose and listened to the wind The shield of Fillan is not heard I tremble for the son of Fingal Why should the foe come by night Why should the dark haired warrior fall Distant sullen murmurs rise like the noise of the lake of Lego when its waters shrink in the days of frost and all its bursting ice resounds The people of Lara look to heaven and foresee the storm My steps are forward on the heath The spear of Oscar is in my hand Red stars looked from high I gleamed along the night | C |
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| I saw Fillan silent before me bending forward from Mora's rock He heard the shout of the foe The joy of his soul arose He heard my sounding tread and turned his lifted spear Comest thou son of night in peace Or dost thou meet my wrath The foes of Fingal are mine Speak or fear my steel I stand not in vain the shield of Morven's race Never mayest thou stand in vain son of blue eyed Clatho Fingal begins to be alone Darkness gathers on the last of his days Yet he has two sons who ought to shine in war Who ought to be two beams of light near the steps of his departure | B |
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| Son of Fingal replied the youth it is not long since I raised the spear Few are the marks of my sword in war But Fillan's soul is fire The chiefs of Bolga crowd around the shield of generous Cathmor Their gathering is on the heath Shall my steps approach their host I yielded to Oscar alone in the strife of the race of Cona | D |
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| Fillan thou shalt not approach their host nor fall before thy fame is known My name is heard in song when needful I advance From the skirts of night I shall view them over all their gleaming tribes Why Fillan didst thou speak of Oscar Why awake my sigh I must forget the warrior till the storm is rolled away Sadness ought not to dwell in danger nor the tear in the eye of war Our fathers forgot their fallen sons till the noise of arms was past Then sorrow returned to the tomb and the song of bards arose The memory of those who fell quickly followed the departure of war when the tumult of battle is past the soul in silence melts away for the dead | E |
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| Conar was the brother of Trathal first of mortal men His battles were on every coast A thousand streams rolled down the blood of his foes His fame filled green Erin like a pleasant gale The nations gathered in Ullin and they blessed the king the king of the race of their fathers from the land of Selma | D |
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| The chiefs of the south were gathered in the darkness of their pride In the horrid cave of Moma they mixed their secret words Thither often they said the spirits of their fathers came showing their pale forms from the chinky rocks reminding them of the honor of Bolga 'Why should Conar reign ' they said 'the son of resounding Morven ' | - |
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| They came forth like the streams of the desert with the roar of their hundred tribes Cona was a rock before them broken they rolled on every side But often they returned and the sons of Selma fell The king stood among the tombs of his warriors He darkly bent his mournful face His soul was rolled into itself and he had marked the place where he was to fall when Trathal came in his strength his brother from cloudy Morven Nor did he come alone Colgar was at his side Colgar the son of the king and of white bosomed Solin corma | D |
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| As Trenmor clothed with meteors descends from the halls of thunder pouring the dark storm before him over the troubled sea so Colgar descended to battle and wasted the echoing field His father rejoiced over the hero but an arrow came His tomb was raised without a tear The king was to revenge his son He lightened forward in battle till Bolga yielded at her streams | F |
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| When peace returned to the land when his blue waves bore the king to Morven then he remembered his son and poured the silent tear Thrice did the bards at the cave of Furmono call the soul of Colgar They called him to the hills of his land He heard them in his mist Trathal placed his sword in the cave that the spirit of his son might rejoice | G |
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| Colgar son of Trathal said Fillan thou wert renowned in youth but the king hath not marked my sword bright streaming on the field I go forth with the crowd I return without my fame But the foe approaches Ossian I hear their murmur on the heath The sound of their steps is like thunder in the bosom of the ground when the rocking hills shake their groves and not a blast pours from the darkened sky | H |
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| Ossian turned sudden on his spear He raised the flame of an oak on high I spread it large on Mora's wind Cathmor stopt in his course Gleaming he stood like a rock on whose sides are the wandering blasts which seize its echoing streams and clothe them with ice So stood the friend of strangers The winds lift his heavy locks Thou art the tallest of the race of Erin king of streamy Atha | D |
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| First of bards said Cathmor Fonar call the chiefs of Erin Call red haired Cormar dark browed Malthos the sidelong looking gloom of Maronnan Let the pride of Foldath appear The red rolling eye of Turlotho Nor let Hidalla be forgot his voice in danger is the sound of a shower when it falls in the blasted vale near Atha's falling stream Pleasant is its sound on the plain whilst broken thunder travels over the sky | H |
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| They came in their cl | I |
James Macpherson
(1)
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