Connal
Fall indeed I may: But raise mytomb, Crimora. Some stones, a moundof earth, shall keep my memory.Though fair thou art, my love, as thelight; more pleasant than the gale ofthe hill; yet I will not stay. Raise mytomb, Crimora.
Then give me those arms of light;that sword, and that spear of steel. Ishall meet Dargo with thee, and aid mylovely Connal. Farewell, ye rocks ofArdven! ye deer! and ye streams ofthe hill!--We shall return no more.Our tombs are distant far.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Connal 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, Connal, in Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8161, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macpherson-ossian/connal-2.html, id L09642.
Form and metre
Connal is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 64% 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.
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 A----A- myA · mound · memory · the · of · myA · crimora
- 2 -AABB-- light · iA · myA · ofB · ofB · more · far
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fall indeed I may: But raise my | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| tomb, Crimora. Some stones, a mound | 8 | ········ |
| of earth, shall keep my memory. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Though fair thou art, my love, as the | 8 | ········ |
| light; more pleasant than the gale of | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| the hill; yet I will not stay. Raise my | 9 | ········· |
| tomb, Crimora. | 4 | ···· |
| Then give me those arms of light; | 7 | ······· |
| that sword, and that spear of steel. I | 8 | ········ |
| shall meet Dargo with thee, and aid my | 9 | ········· |
| lovely Connal. Farewell, ye rocks of | 9 | /˘···/··· |
| Ardven! ye deer! and ye streams of | 8 | ········ |
| the hill!--We shall return no more. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Our tombs are distant far. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
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.