Maclean of Duart
This wax returns not back more fairThe impression of the gift you send,Than stamped upon my thoughts I bearThe image of your worth, my friend!
We are not friends of yesterday;—But poet’s fancies are a littleDisposed to heat and cool (they say),—By turns impressible and brittle.
Well! should its frailty e’er condemnMy heart to prize or please you less,Your type is still the sealing gem,And mine the waxen brittleness.
What transcripts of my weal and woeThis little signet yet may lock,—What utterances to friend or foe,In reason’s calm or passion’s shock!
What scenes of life’s yet curtained pageMay own its confidential die,Whose stamp awaits the unwritten page,And feelings of futurity!
Yet wheresoe’er my pen I liftTo date the epistolary sheet,The blest occasion of the giftShall make its recollection sweet;
Sent when the star that rules your fatesHath reached its influence most benign—When every heart congratulates,And none more cordially than mine.
So speed my song—marked with the crestThat erst the adventurous Norman wore,Who won the Lady of the West,The daughter of Macaillain Mor.
Crest of my sires! whose blood it sealedWith glory in the strife of swords,Ne’er may the scroll that bears it yieldDegenerate thoughts or faithless words!
Yet little might I prize the stone,If it but typed the feudal treeFrom whence a scattered leaf, I’m blownIn Fortune’s mutability.
No!—but it tells me of a heart,Allied by friendship’s living tie;A prize beyond the herald’s art—Our soul-sprung consanguinity!
Katherine! to many an hour of mineLight wings and sunshine you have lent;And so adieu, and still be thineThe all-in-all of life—Content!
A Norman leader, Gilliespie le Camile, in the service of the king ofScotland, married the heiress of Lochaw in the twelfth century, and fromhim the Campbells are sprung.
Words in this poem
- impressible a.
- Capable of being impressed; susceptible; sensitive. [Cf. F. impressible.]
- frailty n.
- The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally, frailness; infirmity; weakness of resolution; liableness to be deceived or seduced. [OE. frelete, freilte, OF. fraileté, fr. L. fragilitas. See Frail, a., and cf. Fragility.]
- signet n.
- A seal; especially, in England, the seal used by the sovereign in sealing private letters and grants that pass by bill under the sign manual; -- called also privy signet. [OF. signet a signet, F., a bookmark, dim. of signe. See Sign, n., and cf. Sennet.]
- confidential a.
- Enjoying, or treated with, confidence; trusted in; trustworthy; as, a confidential servant or clerk. [Cf. F. confidentiel.]
- unwritten a.
- Not written; not reduced to writing; oral; as, unwritten agreements.
- futurity n.
- State of being that is yet to come; future state.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- cordially adv.
- In a cordial manner. Dr. H. More.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- mutability n.
- The quality of being mutable, or subject to change or alteration, either in form, state, or essential character; susceptibility of change; changeableness; inconstancy; variation. [L. mutabilitas: cf. F. mutabilité.]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- heiress
- , A female heir.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Maclean of Duart is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell, Project Gutenberg ebook #59788; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Campbell, Maclean of Duart, in The Pleasures of Hope, and Other Poems (1824), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59788, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campbell-poems/maclean-of-duart.html, id L24419.
Form and metre
Maclean of Duart is 51 lines in 13 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 7 of its 13 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB fairA · sendB · bearA · friendB
- 2 ABAB yesterdayA · littleB · sayA · brittleB
- 3 ABAB condemnA · lessB · gemA · brittlenessB
- 4 ABAB woeA · lockB · foeA · shockB
- 5 A-A- pageA · die · pageA · futurity
- 6 ABAB liftA · sheetB · giftA · sweetB
- 7 -A-A fates · benignA · congratulates · mineA
- 8 ABAB crestA · woreB · westA · morB
- 9 A-A- sealedA · swords · yieldA · words
- 10 A-A- stoneA · tree · blownA · mutability
- 11 A-A- heartA · tie · artA · consanguinity
- 12 ABAB mineA · lentB · thineA · contentB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This wax returns not back more fair | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The impression of the gift you send, | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| Than stamped upon my thoughts I bear | 8 | ········ |
| The image of your worth, my friend! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| We are not friends of yesterday;— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But poet’s fancies are a little | 9 | ·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Disposed to heat and cool (they say),— | 8 | ˘/······ |
| By turns impressible and brittle. | 9 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘ |
| Well! should its frailty e’er condemn | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| My heart to prize or please you less, | 8 | ········ |
| Your type is still the sealing gem, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And mine the waxen brittleness. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| What transcripts of my weal and woe | 8 | ·/······ |
| This little signet yet may lock,— | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| What utterances to friend or foe, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| In reason’s calm or passion’s shock! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| What scenes of life’s yet curtained page | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| May own its confidential die, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Whose stamp awaits the unwritten page, | 9 | ··˘/·˘/˘· |
| And feelings of futurity! | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Yet wheresoe’er my pen I lift | 8 | ········ |
| To date the epistolary sheet, | 9 | ···˘/˘·˘· |
| The blest occasion of the gift | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Shall make its recollection sweet; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Sent when the star that rules your fates | 8 | ········ |
| Hath reached its influence most benign— | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| When every heart congratulates, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And none more cordially than mine. | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| So speed my song—marked with the crest | 8 | ········ |
| That erst the adventurous Norman wore, | 9 | ···˘/˘/˘· |
| Who won the Lady of the West, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The daughter of Macaillain Mor. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Crest of my sires! whose blood it sealed | 8 | ········ |
| With glory in the strife of swords, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ne’er may the scroll that bears it yield | 8 | ········ |
| Degenerate thoughts or faithless words! | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Yet little might I prize the stone, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| If it but typed the feudal tree | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From whence a scattered leaf, I’m blown | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In Fortune’s mutability. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| No!—but it tells me of a heart, | 8 | ········ |
| Allied by friendship’s living tie; | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| A prize beyond the herald’s art— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Our soul-sprung consanguinity! | 8 | /······· |
| Katherine! to many an hour of mine | 8 | /˘·/·/·· |
| Light wings and sunshine you have lent; | 8 | ···/···· |
| And so adieu, and still be thine | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The all-in-all of life—Content! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| A Norman leader, Gilliespie le Camile, in the service of the king of | 20 | ·/˘/˘·········/˘···· |
| Scotland, married the heiress of Lochaw in the twelfth century, and from | 17 | /˘/˘·/˘······/˘·· |
| him the Campbells are sprung. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
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