Coronach
Coronach - form Summary
A Brief Highland Elegy
This short elegy mourns a man named Duncan through Highland imagery and seasonal contrasts. Natural cycles—mountain springs, autumn winds—are invoked to show communal loss even as nature renews. The speaker catalogues the dead man’s virtues—swift, wise, and brave—and closes with fragile images like dew and foam to emphasize his definitive absence. The poem frames personal grief within a regional landscape, stressing irretrievability despite surrounding continuity.
Read Complete AnalysesHe is gone on the mountain, He is lost to the forest, Like a summer-dried fountain, When our need was the sorest. The font, reappearing, From the rain-drops shall borrow, But to us comes no cheering, To Duncan no morrow! The hand of the reaper Takes the ears that are hoary, But the voice of the weeper Wails manhood in glory. The autumn winds rushing Waft the leaves that are searest, But our flower was in flushing, When blighting was nearest. Fleet foot on the corrie, Sage counsel in cumber, Red hand in the foray, How sound is thy slumber! Like the dew on the mountain, Like the foam on the river, Like the bubble on the fountain, Thou art gone, and for ever!
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