Duchommar
And long shall Morna wait. Hisblood is on my sword. I met him bythe mossy stone, by the oak of the noisystream. He fought; but I slew him;his blood is on my sword. High onthe hill I will raise his tomb, daughterof Cormac-Carbre. But love thou theson of Mugruch; his arm is strong as astorm.
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
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-3.html, id L09658.
Form and metre
Duchommar is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 78% 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 ------AA- his · by · noisy · him · on · daughter · theA · aA · storm
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And long shall Morna wait. His | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| blood is on my sword. I met him by | 9 | ········· |
| the mossy stone, by the oak of the noisy | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| stream. He fought; but I slew him; | 7 | ······· |
| his blood is on my sword. High on | 8 | ········ |
| the hill I will raise his tomb, daughter | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| of Cormac-Carbre. But love thou the | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| son of Mugruch; his arm is strong as a | 10 | ·········· |
| storm. | 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.