Shilric
What voice is that I hear? thatvoice like the summer-wind.--I sitnot by the nodding rushes; I hear notthe fount of the rock. Afar, Vinvela,afar I go to the wars of Fingal. Mydogs attend me no more. No moreI tread the hill. No more from onhigh I see thee, fair-moving by thestream of the plain; bright as thebow of heaven; as the moon on thewestern wave.
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
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.html, id L09633.
Form and metre
Shilric is 11 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 82% 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 -------AAA- that · sit · not · vinvela · my · more · on · theA · theA · theA · wave
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What voice is that I hear? that | 7 | ······· |
| voice like the summer-wind.--I sit | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| not by the nodding rushes; I hear not | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| the fount of the rock. Afar, Vinvela, | 10 | ·····˘/··· |
| afar I go to the wars of Fingal. My | 11 | ˘/········· |
| dogs attend me no more. No more | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| I tread the hill. No more from on | 8 | ········ |
| high I see thee, fair-moving by the | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| stream of the plain; bright as the | 7 | ······· |
| bow of heaven; as the moon on the | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| western wave. | 3 | /˘· |
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.