Preface To Diarmid's Story Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCACB DBBEBB FBGFGB GHIGIH JBDJDB BKBBBK FLFFFL GMGGGM GBEGDB BBFBFB BNFBFN COFCFO BPEBEP GQGGGQ DRSESR GGCGCG FTUFUT ULCUCL UCBUBC GBUGUB FVEFDV| Best beloved of ancient stories | A |
| Are our Diarmid's woes to me | B |
| Like a mist by breezes broken | C |
| So this tale of olden glories | A |
| Floats in fragments as a token | C |
| Of the song of Ireland's sea | B |
| - | |
| Through long centuries repeated | D |
| Lived the legend told in Erse | B |
| But a change comes swift or slowly | B |
| Fades the language and defeated | E |
| Flies the faith once counted holy | B |
| Old world ways and oral verse | B |
| - | |
| Not from men of note or learning | F |
| May we gather now these tales | B |
| Heard beneath the cotter's rafter | G |
| Or where smithy sparks are burning | F |
| Or at sea when hushed the laughter | G |
| Of the breeze on hull and sails | B |
| - | |
| Then with Ossian's rhythmic Measure | G |
| Comes upon the fancy's sight | H |
| One with golden locks resplendent | I |
| Great and strong with eyes of azure | G |
| And again in the ascendant | I |
| Magic reasserts her might | H |
| - | |
| Nought can wound him sword or arrow | J |
| Only powerless are the spells | B |
| Where on the footsole implanted | D |
| There is hid a birth mark narrow | J |
| But this hero's brow enchanted | D |
| Every woman's love compels | B |
| - | |
| Woe to him that she whose glances | B |
| Won the king on Denmark's shore | K |
| Evil beautiful imperious | B |
| Born where wheel the grisly dances | B |
| Through the glen of ghosts mysterious | B |
| Love's first passion for him bore | K |
| - | |
| For she saw his forehead bending | F |
| O'er the snarling dogs at strife | L |
| At the wedding feast of greeting | F |
| And at dusk unto him wending | F |
| Come she said let this our meeting | F |
| Pledge my soul to thee for life | L |
| - | |
| If O queen we go together | G |
| Not with friends nor yet alone | M |
| Must thou be nor sheltered ever | G |
| Housed nor braving wind and weather | G |
| If on horse or foot then never | G |
| Can thy love to me be known | M |
| - | |
| Flight were shield and fence far surer | G |
| Gainst a wily woman's ways | B |
| Than the wit of man for seated | E |
| Ere the dawn his fair allurer | G |
| At his open door repeated | D |
| All his words with longing gaze | B |
| - | |
| Go with me O Diarmid see me | B |
| Not on horse or foot with friends | B |
| Nor alone not night or morning | F |
| Reigns O come thou wilt not flee me | B |
| Never lived a warrior scorning | F |
| Every joy that loving lends | B |
| - | |
| Then at last by her caresses | B |
| Into flight and guilt beguiled | N |
| Diarmid loathed his life abiding | F |
| In the caves' or woods' recesses | B |
| Like a thief or coward hiding | F |
| To his fate unreconciled | N |
| - | |
| Thus the mightiest magician | C |
| Warped the true and loyal heart | O |
| And he fled with her forsaking | F |
| Friends and kinsfolk while contrition | C |
| Gnawed into his life's days making | F |
| Sad his journey hard his part | O |
| - | |
| He a fugitive whose valiance | B |
| Made the Feinne fair Erin's boast | P |
| Where the red cascade descended | E |
| Lovely Grinie's evil dalliance | B |
| Held him thrall as though were ended | E |
| Noble warring with the host | P |
| - | |
| He a slave whose oaths had ever | G |
| Bade him champion the oppressed | Q |
| Pledged him to confound the clever | G |
| Aid the losing man's endeavour | G |
| Be the first in fight and never | G |
| Heedless of the king's behest | Q |
| - | |
| Once upon a rock tree shrouded | D |
| Hungry they had climbed to eat | R |
| Where the scarlet berries clustered | S |
| Suddenly below them crowded | E |
| Dogs and huntsmen 'til were mustered | S |
| All the Feinne beneath their feet | R |
| - | |
| Fionn then their grim commander | G |
| Dreaming not his wife was near | G |
| Had a giant chess board graven | C |
| On the sod and played and under | G |
| The green leaves which gave him haven | C |
| Diarmid watched the game in fear | G |
| - | |
| Oscar lost with Fionn playing | F |
| Until Diarmid from on high | T |
| Dropped the scarlet seeds to guide him | U |
| Thus his presence there betraying | F |
| And the friends of Fionn eyed him | U |
| Shouting Thou shalt surely die | T |
| - | |
| But all Diarmid's comrades for him | U |
| Fought each venturing his life | L |
| And amid the dread commotion | C |
| Fled the twain until before him | U |
| To the peaceful sands of ocean | C |
| Ran a woodland stream of strife | L |
| - | |
| Dwelling on its banks he made him | U |
| There the wooden bowls that none | C |
| Fashioned with the dirk so deftly | B |
| But the chattering stream betrayed him | U |
| From the secret forest swiftly | B |
| Flashed white shavings in the sun | C |
| - | |
| Then the king cried Grinie's lover | G |
| Near us hath his lurking place | B |
| Sound the hunting horns around him | U |
| See if from the thickets' cover | G |
| By the ancient vows that bound him | U |
| He shall come to join the chase | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| How the queen bore his upbraiding | F |
| How his death in hunting came | V |
| Tell the verses here translated | E |
| Lights are they in transit fading | F |
| Scattered sparks oblivion fated | D |
| Memories from a mighty flame | V |
John Campbell
(1)
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