Culloden Still.......

[tectak]

I like the long lines, but am metrically-challenged. I di not think the last lines worthy of what had gone before, but perhaps a re-read would cure that.

RE 'soft'. we still speak of 'the going being soft', tho' I do not know whether the expression extends beyond these Isles: I think it would be readily understood in the Gulf states!

I think you have gone to the nub of it, Abu.
This dirge is the remnant of an emotional high, one day on Culloden battlefield, followed by an evening writing whilst drinking Culloden malt! The last lines reflect the end-of-verse "ponder" during which time I should, perhaps, have allowed my ego to deflate until sobriety took over from lofty delusions of grandeur!
Though I like this piece, I am hoping to get a good cathartic mauling from the critics.
Having said that the National Trust for Scotland have accepted it into the archives (total interminable obscurity) in its present form.
Oh, and as an aside, modern Dubliners still say the weather has gone "soft", meaning rain.
Best,
Tectak