Ossian Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

52 MODERN GAELIC BARD^
INTRODUCTION TO BEN DORAIN.
In the celebrated poem which Duncan Ban dedicates to the liill,
Ben Dorain, he throws the whole soul of the hunter Bard, and
true poetic son of nature into his description of the place and of
its sprightly denizens. This poem, consisting of five hundred and
fifty-five lines, is the longest of Duncan Ban's compositions. It
is adapted to a pipe tune, into all the varieties of whose wild
rhythm he moulds his lang\iage throughout with such spirit and
success, that even considered as a piece of elaborate versification,
carried out to such a length, and on so unique a plan, it is no
small feat to have been achieved by such an author, and so
circumstanced, that it was only by crooning it over in his memory
he could give his diction the necessary finish.
The poem is divided into eight parts, corresponding to the
variations of the pibroch, which, as Duncan Ban understood it,
seems to have been made up of what he calls the "Urlar" and
"Siubhal," played alternately — the first four times repeated, and
the last three times — the whole ending with the "Crunluath," or
quick motion. The following passage is entirely from the first of
these heads — the "Urlar," which is the one indeed chiefly used
by the poet — nearly the half of "Ben Dorain" being constructed
altogether of this measure — and its principal peculiarity which
consists of a regular and frequent occurrence of the broad sound
of 0, or ail, to round every cadence being found throughout the
poem. This was done to imitate a certain quality of the bag-
pipe, which goes far to give its tones their own fierce and warlike
character. The Gaelic language, in which the broad sound of o
is very common, falls into this rhythm very easily, and with good
effect. It is more of a novelty in English, and the reader will do
well to bear its nature in mind, when reading the following
extract from "Ben Dorain."