Completion
What voice is that I hear?That voice like the summer wind. ("Fragment I")
The warriours saw her, and loved;Their souls were fixed on the maid.Each loved her, as his fame;Each must possess her or die.But her soul was fixed on Oscur;My son was the youth of her love. ("Fragment VII")
Autumn is dark on the mountains;Grey mist rests on the hills.The whirlwind is heard on the heath.Dark rolls the river through the narrow plain. ("Fragment V")
The da/ughter of R/inval was n/ear;
Crim/ora, br/ight in the arm/our of m/an;
Her ha/ir loose beh/ind,
Her b/ow in her h/and.
She f/ollowed the y/outh to w/ar,
Co/nnal her m/uch bel/oved.
She dr/ew the st/ring on D/argo;
About this text
Completion is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Project Gutenberg ebook #8161; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Macpherson, Completion, in Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8161, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macpherson-ossian/completion.html, id L09631.
Form and metre
Completion is 19 lines in 10 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What voice is that I hear? | 6 | ······ |
| That voice like the summer wind. ("Fragment I") | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| The warriours saw her, and loved; | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Their souls were fixed on the maid. | 7 | ······· |
| Each loved her, as his fame; | 6 | ······ |
| Each must possess her or die. | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| But her soul was fixed on Oscur; | 8 | ········ |
| My son was the youth of her love. ("Fragment VII") | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Autumn is dark on the mountains; | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Grey mist rests on the hills. | 6 | ······ |
| The whirlwind is heard on the heath. | 8 | ·/······ |
| Dark rolls the river through the narrow plain. ("Fragment V") | 13 | ···/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| The da/ughter of R/inval was n/ear; | 11 | ··········· |
| Crim/ora, br/ight in the arm/our of m/an; | 13 | ·/˘·····/˘··· |
| Her ha/ir loose beh/ind, | 6 | ······ |
| Her b/ow in her h/and. | 7 | ······· |
| She f/ollowed the y/outh to w/ar, | 12 | ········/˘˘· |
| Co/nnal her m/uch bel/oved. | 7 | ······· |
| She dr/ew the st/ring on D/argo; | 10 | ········/˘ |
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.