Duchommar
Daughter of Cormac-Carbre, thouhast pierced Duchommar! the sword iscold in my breast; thou hast killed theson of Mugruch. Give me to Moinicthe maid; for much she loved Duchommar.My tomb she will raise on thehill; the hunter shall see it, and praiseme.--But draw the sword from myside, Morna; I feel it cold.--
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- 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-4.html, id L09660.
Form and metre
Duchommar is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 78% 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--- thou · is · theA · moinic · duchommar · theA · praise · my · cold
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Daughter of Cormac-Carbre, thou | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| hast pierced Duchommar! the sword is | 8 | ········ |
| cold in my breast; thou hast killed the | 8 | ········ |
| son of Mugruch. Give me to Moinic | 9 | ········· |
| the maid; for much she loved Duchommar. | 9 | ········· |
| My tomb she will raise on the | 7 | ······· |
| hill; the hunter shall see it, and praise | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| me.--But draw the sword from my | 7 | ······· |
| side, Morna; I feel it cold.-- | 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.