The Slaying of Conbeg
Mournful to me the slaying of Conbeg,Little hound, great was his brightness;Never was one more deft of pawSeen in the chase of swine or deer.
Tribulation to me the slaying of Conbeg,Little hound, of the baying voice;Never was one more deft of pawFound in the running down of the deer.
Tribulation to me the drowning of ConbegUpon the mighty grey-green seas;His cruel loss, it brought contention,A "fill of sorrow" was his death.
Words in this poem
- deft a.
- Apt; fit; dexterous; clever; handy; spruce; neat. [OE. daft, deft, becoming, mild, gentle, stupid (cf. OE. daffe, deffe, fool, coward), AS. dæft (in derivatives only) mild, gentle, fitting, seasonable; akin to d]
- tribulation n.
- That which occasions distress, trouble, or vexation; severe affliction. [OE. tribulacium, F. tribulation, L. tribulatio, from tribulare to press, afflict, fr. tribulum a thrashing sledge, akin to terere, tritum, to rub. See Trite.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Slaying of Conbeg is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poem-Book of the Gael Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #46917; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Hull, The Slaying of Conbeg, in The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #46917, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hull-gael/the-slaying-of-conbeg.html, id L11683.
Form and metre
The Slaying of Conbeg is 12 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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.
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Mournful to me the slaying of Conbeg, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Little hound, great was his brightness; | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Never was one more deft of paw | 8 | /˘······ |
| Seen in the chase of swine or deer. | 8 | ········ |
| Tribulation to me the slaying of Conbeg, | 12 | ·˘/˘···/˘··· |
| Little hound, of the baying voice; | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Never was one more deft of paw | 8 | /˘······ |
| Found in the running down of the deer. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Tribulation to me the drowning of Conbeg | 12 | ·˘/˘···/˘··· |
| Upon the mighty grey-green seas; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| His cruel loss, it brought contention, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| A "fill of sorrow" was his death. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 2
Eleanor Hull's notes to The Poem-Book of the Gael (1912; Project Gutenberg #46917).
- Stanza 1, line 1 Conbeg means "little hound."
- Stanza 3, line 3 i.e. between Fionn and Goll; Goll was leader of the Connacht Fians and the deadly enemy of Fionn.
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.