Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1871 to 1900 > Gaelic bards, and original poems

ALEXANDER MACDONALD.
Or the description of the steersman, who is to be,
“A well set prop full of vigour.
Broad-seated, thick,
Stout and sure, and skilful and wary,
Cautious, yet quick.”
Or that of the balesman,
“His trust he’ll rigidly discharge it.
Neither faint nor slack,
Nor straightening, while a drop remaineth,
His bending active back ;
’Though her boards should all get riddled,
He must keep her snug,
As a well made lid, close fitting,
Keeps a polished jug.”
Then, there is the description of the storm, in which
the Birlinn made her first entry on the open sea. This,
as a more elaborate and sustained effort of the poet’s
imagination, cannot fail to attract the notice of a dis¬
cerning reader. The elements are let loose in their
wildest fury, and terror is heaped on terror round the
good ship of Clan-Ranald, as she courses on her perilous
way from Uist to Carrickfergus; and not until all her
sails are rent, and every board and plank in her are
strained, does the poet flag or stop to draw breath, or let
“the rough wind, bitter boaster”—“ruffle round her fair.”
But though possessing many such notable points as the
preceding, though altogether so remarkable a production,
so very vigorous, so very characteristically Highland,
“ The Manning of the Birlinn” may not possibly abound
in some other qualities, which are perhaps more attractive
to the general reader than the lavish display of strength,
the mere powerful exertion of energetic and robust
faculties can ever be.
“ The Manning of the Birlinn” is here translated line
for line, with the original. It is the longest poem in
Gaelic, except such as are Ossianic.