His verse is always musical, and his skilful use of epithet, often very lavishly strewn, enables him to express with marvellous effect the various aspects of nature in her gentler and sterner moods alike. His masterpiece, the Birlinn of Clanranald, which is at the same time, apart from Ossianic ballads, the longest poem in the language, describes a voyage from South Uist to Carrick fergus. Here Macdonald excels in describing the movement of the ship and the fury of the storm. In Allt an t-Siucair (The Sugar Brook) we are given an exquisite picture of a beautiful scene in the country on a summer morning. Other similar poems full of melody and colour are Failte na Mor-thir (Hail to the Mainland), Oran an t-Sarnhraidh (Ode to Summer), and Oran an Gheamhraidh (Ode to Winter). Among the Jacobite poems we may mention Oran naM Fineachan Gaelach (The Song of the Clans), Brosnachadh nam Fineachan Gaidhealach (A Call to the Highland Clans), and various songs to the prince. But incom parably the finest of all is Oran Luaighe no Fucaidh (Waulking Song). Here the prince is addressed as a young girl with flowing locks of yellow hair on her shoulders, and called Morag. She had gone away over the seas, and the poet invokes her to return with a party of maidens (i.e., soldiers) to dress the red cloth, in other words, to beat the English red-coats. Macdonald's works have gone through several editions, the last of which is dated Duncan Ban.—The only poet of nature who can claim to rival Macdonald is a man of a totally different stamp. Duncan Ban Maclntyre (Donnachadh Ban, 1724-1812) was born of poor parents in Glenorchy, and never learned to read and write or to speak English. He was present on the English side at the battle of Falkirk, on which he wrote an ode, and shortly afterwards he was appointed gamekeeper to the earl of Breadalbane in Coire Cheathaich and Ben Dorain, where he lived for many years until he accepted a similar appointment from the duke of Argyll in Buachaill-Eite. In addition to his poems descriptive of nature
Maclntyre composed a number of Jacobite martial songs, songs of love and sentiment, and comic and satiric pieces. The poem Mairi bhan og addressed to his wife is, on account of its grace and delicate sentiment, generally held to be the finest love-song in the language. But it is above all as the poet of ben and corrie that Maclntyre is remembered. He has been called the Burns of the Highlands, but the bitterness and intellectual power of the Ayrshire poet are absent in Maclntyre.
Duncan Ban describes fondly and tenderly the glories of his native mountains as only one can who spends his life in daily communion with them. His two great compositions are styled Ben Dorain and Coire Cheathaich. The former, which might be called the "Song of the Deer," has been well done into English by J. S. Blackie. Coire Cheathaich (The Misty Corrie), a much shorter poem than Ben Dorain, gives a loving description of all the prominent features in the landscape—the flowers, the bushes, the stones, the hillocks with the birds and game, and the whirling eddies with the glistening salmon. MacIntyre's works, first pub lished in 1768, went through three editions in his lifetime. The most recent edition, by G. Calder, appeared in 1912.
From Duncan Ban we pass on to consider the compositions of two men who hailed from the outlying parts of Gaeldom. Robert Mackay, or, as he is generally called, Rob Donn (1714-78), was a native of Strathmore, Sutherlandshire. He left behind a large number of poems which may be roughly classified as elegiac, love, and satiric poems. His best-known elegy is "The Death-Song of Hugh." Having just heard of the death of Pelham, the prime minister, Mackay finds a poor friend of his dying alone amid squalor in the heart of the mountains. In a poem composed on the spot the poet contrasts the positions of the two men and reflects on the vanity of human existence. Among his love-poems the "Shieling Song" is deservedly famous. But it was above all as a satirist that Mackay excelled during his lifetime. Indeed he seems to have had the sharpest tongue of all the Highland bards, but many of Rob Donn's compositions have lost their point, and opinions have been greatly divided as to his merits as a poet. His collected poems were first published in 1829, a second edition appeared in 1871, and in 1899 two new editions were issued simultaneously. Another satirical poet who enjoyed a great reputation in his own day was John MacCodrum, a native of North Uist and a contemporary of the men just mentioned. A number of his compositions are addressed to his patrons, but one delightful poem entitled Smeorach Chlann-Domhnuill (The Mavis of Clan Donald) describes in verses full of melody the beauties of his beloved island home.