Morna
And is the son of Tarman fallen;the youth with the breast of snow! thefirst in the chase of the hill; the foeof the sons of the ocean!--Duchommar,thou art gloomy indeed; cruel isthy arm to me.--But give me thatsword, son of Mugruch; I love theblood of Cadmor.
About this text
Morna 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, Morna, in Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8161, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macpherson-ossian/morna-3.html, id L09659.
Form and metre
Morna is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 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-B--AB fallen · theA · foe · duchommarB · is · that · theA · cadmorB
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 is the son of Tarman fallen; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| the youth with the breast of snow! the | 8 | ········ |
| first in the chase of the hill; the foe | 9 | ········· |
| of the sons of the ocean!--Duchommar, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| thou art gloomy indeed; cruel is | 9 | ··/˘˘//˘· |
| thy arm to me.--But give me that | 8 | ········ |
| sword, son of Mugruch; I love the | 8 | ········ |
| blood of Cadmor. | 4 | ···· |
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.