Duchommar
From the hill I return, O Morna,from the hill of the flying deer. Threehave I slain with my bow; three withmy panting dogs. Daughter of Cormac-Carbre,I love thee as my soul. Ihave slain a deer for thee. High washis branchy head; and fleet his feet ofwind.
Words in this poem
- branchy a.
- Full of branches; having wide-spreading branches; consisting of branches.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Duchommar 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, Duchommar, in Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8161, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macpherson-ossian/duchommar-2.html, id L09656.
Form and metre
Duchommar is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 62% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A--A--- morna · threeA · with · carbre · iA · was · of · wind
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From the hill I return, O Morna, | 9 | ····˘/·/˘ |
| from the hill of the flying deer. Three | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| have I slain with my bow; three with | 8 | ········ |
| my panting dogs. Daughter of Cormac-Carbre, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| I love thee as my soul. I | 7 | ······· |
| have slain a deer for thee. High was | 8 | ········ |
| his branchy head; and fleet his feet of | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| wind. | 1 | · |
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.