Repetition
Who can reach the source of thy race, O Connal?And who recount thy Fathers? ("Fragment V")
Oscur my son came down;The mighty in battle descended. ("Fragment VI")
Oscur stood forth to meet him;My son would meet the foe. ("Fragment VIII")
Future times shall hear of thee;They shall hear of the fallen Morar. ("Fragment XII")
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
Repetition 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, Repetition, in Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8161, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macpherson-ossian/repetition.html, id L09630.
Form and metre
Repetition is 8 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Who can reach the source of thy race, O Connal? | 11 | ··········· |
| And who recount thy Fathers? ("Fragment V") | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Oscur my son came down; | 6 | ······ |
| The mighty in battle descended. ("Fragment VI") | 12 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘/˘· |
| Oscur stood forth to meet him; | 7 | ······· |
| My son would meet the foe. ("Fragment VIII") | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Future times shall hear of thee; | 7 | /˘····· |
| They shall hear of the fallen Morar. ("Fragment XII") | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
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.