Temora - Book Iv Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N| ARGUMENT | A |
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| The second night continues Fingal relates at the feast his own first expedition into Ireland and his marriage with Ros cranna the daughter of Cormac king of that island The Irish chiefs convene in the presence of Cathmor The situation of the king described The story of Sul malla the daughter of Conmor king of Inis huna who in the disguise of a young warrior hath followed Cathmor to the war The sullen behavior of Foldath who had commanded in the battle of the preceding day renews the difference between him and Malthos but Cathmor interposing ends it The chiefs feast and hear the song of Fonar the bard Cathmor returns to rest at a distance from the army The ghost of his brother Cairbar appears to him in a dream and obscurely foretells the issue of the war The soliloquy of the king He discovers Sul malla Morning comes Her soliloquy closes the book | B |
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| BENEATH an oak said the king I sat on Selma's streamy rock when Connal rose from the sea with the broken spear of Duth caron Far distant stood the youth He turned away his eyes He remembered the steps of his father on his own green hill I darkened in my place Dusky thoughts flew over my soul The kings of Erin rose before me I half unsheathed the sword Slowly approached the chiefs They lifted up their silent eyes Like a ridge of clouds they wait for the bursting forth of my voice My voice was to them a wind from heaven to roll the mist away | C |
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| I bade my white sails to rise before the roar of Cona's wind Three hundred youths looked from their waves on Fingal's bossy shield High on the mast it hung and marked the dark blue sea But when night came down I struck at times the warning boss I struck and looked on high for fiery haired Ul erin Nor absent was the star of heaven It travelled red between the clouds I pursued the lovely beam on the faint gleaming deep With morning Erin rose in mist We came into the bay of Moi lena where its blue waters tumbled in the bosom of echoing woods Here Cormac in his secret halls avoids the strength of Colc ulla Nor he alone avoids the foe The blue eye of Ros cranna is there Ros cranna white handed maid the daughter of the king | D |
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| Gray on his pointless spear came forth the aged steps of Cormac He smiled from his waving locks but grief was in his soul He saw us few before him and his sigh arose 'I see the arms of Trenmor ' he said 'and these are the steps of the king Fingal thou art a beam of light to Cormac's darkened soul Early is thy fame my son but strong are the foes of Erin They are like the roar of streams in the land son of car borne Comhal ' 'Yet they may be rolled away ' I said in my rising soul 'We are not of the race of the feeble king of blue shielded hosts Why should fear come amongst us like a ghost of night The soul of the valiant grows when foes increase in the field Roll no darkness king of Erin on the young in war ' | - |
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| The bursting tears of the king came down He seized my hand in silence 'Race of the daring Trenmor ' at length he said 'I roll no cloud before thee Thou burnest in the fire of thy fathers I behold thy fame It marks thy course in battle like a stream of light But wait the coming of Cairbar my so must join thy sword He calls the sons of Erin from all their distant streams ' | - |
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| We came to the hall of the king where it rose in the midst of rocks on whose dark sides were the marks of streams of old Broad oaks bend around with their moss The thick birch is waving near Half hid in her shadowy grove Ros cranna raises the song Her white hands move on the harp I beheld her blues rolling eyes She was like a spirit of heaven half folded in the skirt of a cloud | E |
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| Three days we feasted at Moi lena She rises bright in my troubled soul Cormac beheld me dark He gave the white bosomed maid She comes with bending eye amid the wandering of her heavy locks She came Straight the battle roared Colc ulla appeared I took my spear My sword rose with my people against the ridgy foe Alnecma fled Colc ulla fell Fingal returned with fame | F |
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| Renowned is he O Fillan who fights in the strength of his host The bard pursues his steps through the land of the foe But he who fights alone few are his deeds to other times He shines to day a mighty light To morrow he is low One song contains his fame His name is one dark field He is forgot but where his tomb sends forth the tufted grass | G |
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| Such are the words of Fingal on Mora of the roes Three bards from the rock of Cormul pour down the pleasing song Sleep descends in the sound on the broad skirted host Carril returned with the bards from the tomb of Dunlora's chief The voice of morning shall not come to the dusky bed of Duth caron No more shalt thou hear the tread of roes around thy narrow house | H |
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| As roll the troubled clouds around a meteor of night when they brighten their sides with its light along the heaving sea so gathers Erin around the gleaming form of Cathmor He tall in the midst careless lifts at times his spear as swells or falls the sound of Fonar's distant harp Near him leaned against a rock Sul malla of blue eyes the white bosomed daughter of Conmor king of Inis huna To his aid came blue shielded Cathmor and rolled his foes away Sul malla beheld him stately in the hail of feasts Nor careless rolled the eyes of Cathmor on the long haired maid | I |
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| ''The third day arose when Fithil came from Erin of the streams He told of the lifting up of the shield in Selma he told of the danger of Cairbar Cathmor raised the sail at Cluba but the winds were in other lands Three days he remained on the coast and turned his eyes on Conmor's halls He remembered the daughter of strangers and his sigh arose Now when the winds awaked the wave from the hill came a youth in arms to lift the sword with Cathmor in his echoing fields It was the white armed Sul malla Secret she dwelt beneath her helmet Her steps were in the path of the king on him her blue eyes rolled with joy when he lay by his rolling streams But Cathmor thought that on Lumon she still pursued the roes He thought that fair on a rock she stretched her white hand to the wind to feel its course from Erin the green dwelling of her love He had promised to return with his white bosomed sails The maid is near thee O Cathmor leaning on her rock | J |
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| The tall forms of the chiefs stand around all but dark browed Foldath He leaned against a distant tree rolled into his haughty soul His bushy hair whistles in the wind At times bursts the hum of a song He struck the tree at length in wrath and rushed before the king Calm and stately to the beam of the oak arose the form of young Hidalla His hair falls round his blushing cheek in the wreaths of waving light Soft was his voice in Clonra in the valley of his fathers Soft was his voice when he touched the harp in the hall near his roaring stream | K |
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| King of Erin said Hidalla now is the time to feast Bid the voice of bards arise Bid them roll the night away The soul returns from song more terrible to war Darkness settles on Erin From hill to hill bend the skirted clouds Far and gray on the heath the dreadful strides of ghosts are seen the ghosts of those who fell bend forward to their song Bid O Cathmor the harps to rise to brighten the dead on their wandering blasts | L |
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| Be all the dead forgot said Foldath's bursting wrath Did not I fail in the field Shall I then hear the song Yet was not my course harmless in war Blood was a stream around my steps But the feeble were behind me 'The foe has escaped from my sword In Conra's vale touch thou the harp Let Dura answer to the voice of Hidalla Let some maid look from the wood on thy long yellow locks Fly from Lubar's echoing plain This is the field of heroes | M |
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| King of Erin Malthos said it is thine to lead in war Thou ar | N |
James Macpherson
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