Matheson Collection > Popular tales of the west Highlands > Volume 4

152 GAELIC POETRY OF KNOWN AND UNKNOWN BARDS,
human or superhuman action, and never referring either
to animal or inanimate nature further than it is con-
nected with human passion, sympathy, or interest.
There are no long addresses to inanimate objects of
nature ; neither are there any refined speculations on
human life and existence ; there are no sentimental
speeches on fame or glory. The men of the ballads
fight not for glory, but in defence of some disputed
right, or to avenge an insult, or to resist oppression, or
to protect a woman in distress.
In these lays, similes and metaphors are very sparingly
used ; but this appears to result more from the intensity
of interest belonging to the subject, than the want of
power on the part of the poet; as similes and metaphors
are very plentiful in these long epic tales which treat of
like subjects. This will appear readily on looking over
" The Knight of the Eed Shield," No. lil, and "The
Slim Swarthy Champion," No. xvii. C, in the West
Highland Tales. The language of the old ballads is
exceeding choice Gaelic, pure, idiomatic, chaste. There
is no trace of Anglicism, or of classic idiom ; it is the
Gaelic of the people, but still purer and more elevated
than that of common conversation, and with obsolete
words interspersed. Clearness and conciseness distin-
guish these from the great mass of published Gaelic
poems and songs ; which bear evident marks of belonging
to more modern periods, both in language and matter?
and whose authors are known ; very few of the more
modern poems being at all comparable to the ballads in
these qualities. These later compositions are frequently
tautological, and profuse in epithets, abounding some-
times in long tedious lists of adjectives or adverbs, which
make them look more like a vocabulary than a regular
poem. This is the case with regard to the war song of