Shilric
If fall I must in the field, raise highmy grave, Vinvela. Grey stones, andheaped-up earth, shall mark me to futuretimes. When the hunter shall sit bythe mound, and produce his food atnoon, "some warrior rests here," hewill say; and my fame shall live in hispraise. Remember me, Vinvela, whenlow on earth I lie!
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
Shilric 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, Shilric, in Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8161, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macpherson-ossian/shilric-2.html, id L09635.
Form and metre
Shilric is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 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. 89% 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-A--A highA · and · future · byA · at · heA · his · when · lieA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If fall I must in the field, raise high | 9 | ········· |
| my grave, Vinvela. Grey stones, and | 8 | ········ |
| heaped-up earth, shall mark me to future | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| times. When the hunter shall sit by | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| the mound, and produce his food at | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| noon, "some warrior rests here," he | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| will say; and my fame shall live in his | 9 | ········· |
| praise. Remember me, Vinvela, when | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| low on earth I lie! | 5 | ····· |
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.