1891-92. ] CELTIC PROSODY. 22h 
Yn Chiarn Iee skeayl magh reeriaght vooar da hene, 
Liauyr fegooish Kione, as fegooish cagliagh lhean : 
Niau jir mayd ree; cheer dy vaynrys vooar 
Lane jeh dagh mie, jeh berchys, ooashley’s gloyr. 
Specimens of Pindaric impetuousness and originality of metre are to. 
be found among the Celtic bards. Mary MacLeod or Mairi Nighean 
Alasdair ruaidh, furnishes many examples of such rapidity of thought 
and versification, ¢. 2, 
Tigh mor macnasach meaghrach, 
Nam macaibh ’s nam maighdean, 
Far ’m bu tartarach gleadhraich nan corn. 
Duncan Ban MacIntyre is one of the most remarkable poets in the 
whole range of Celtic poetry. He could neither read nor write, and yet 
some of his poems are acknowledged to be the best of their kind in Celtic 
literature. “I shall be surprised,” writes Professor Blackie, “to learn that 
there exists in any language, ancient or modern, a more original poem of 
the genus which we call venatorial than the Ben Dorain of Duncan Ban. 
What Landseer, in a sister art, has done for animals in general, that 
MacIntyre in this singular work has done for the deer and the roe.” 
Blackie has translated Ben Dorain into forcible English verse. Prin- 
cipal Shairp has conferred a similar honour on Ben Dorain. Mackenzie 
in his introduction to The Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, (p. 51) thus writes, 
“In that admirable poem called Beinn Dorain, Duncan Ban MacIntyre 
has adapted the verse to the piobaireachd notes. Commencing with the 
urlar the ground-work or air, the second part is the Szubhal or quick- 
ening, arranged in a different measure, to which succeeds the Crun-luath 
swifter running music to which a suitable measure is likewise adapted. 
It is a curious effort, and his model seems to have been an older piece 
which accompanied J/oladh Mhairi the praise of Mary, otherwise 
the MacLachlan’s salute.” Trochaics of a rapid character, Iambics. 
of longer and shorter metres, alliteration, correspondence, etc., are to be 
found in Ben Dorain. Moladh Morazg is the name of a poem which 
Alexander MacDonald composed after the same model. I have in my 
possession a poem after the model of Ben Dorain, by the Rev. Dr. Blair,, 
of Nova Scotia. The talented author designates his poem Ruagadh nan 
sionnach, or Hunting the foxes, and indicates a masterly command of the 
Gaelic language as well as a rare aptitude for framing tuneful cadences. 
In his Cozre cheathaich, Duncan Ban reproduces some of the peculi- 
arities of Celtic verse, ¢. g.: 
