tombs are not feen by the ftranger. How long shall our fame be unheard, fon of the echoing Morven ? OSSIAN. --- O that mine eyes could behold thee, as thou fitteft, dim, on thy cloud! Art thou like the mift of Lano; or an half-extinguished meteor? Of what are the skirts of thy robe? Of what is thine airy bow! But he is gone on his blaft like the shadow of mift.-Come from thy wall, my harp, and let me hear thy found. Let the light of memory rife on Ithona; that I may behold my friends. And Offian does behold his friends, on the darkblue ifle. The cave of Thona appears, with its moffy rocks and bending trees. A stream roars at its mouth, and Tofcar bends over its course. Fercuth is fad by his fide: and the maid (1) of his love fits at a diftance, and weeps. Does the wind of the waves deceive me? Or do I hear them fpeak? TOSCAR. The night was flormy. From their hills the groaning oaks came down. The fea dark-> ly-tumbled beneath the blaft, and the roaring waves were climbing against our (1) Cuthona the daughter of Rumar, whom Tof car had carried away by force. rocks. The lightning came often and she wed the blafted fern. Fercuth I faw the ghoft of night. [1] Silent he ftood on that bank; his robe of mift flew on the wind. I could behold his tears an aged man he feemed, and full of thought. FERCUTH. It was thy father, O Tofcar; and he forefees fome death among his race. Such was his appearance on Cromla, before the great Maronnan [2] fell.-Ullin ! [3] with thy hills of grafs, how pleasant are thy vales! Silence is near thy blue ftreams, and the fun is on thy fields. Soft is the found of the harp in Seláma [4], and pleasant the cry of the hun (1) It was long thought, in the north of Scotland, that ftorms were raised by the ghosts of the deceafed. This notion is ftill entertained by the vulgar; for they think that whirlwinds, and fudden fqualls of wind are occafioned by fpirits, vho tranfport themfelves, in that manner from one place to another. (2) Ma-ronnan was the brother of Tofcar: the tranflator has a poem in his poffeffion concerning the extraordinary death of that hero. (3) Ulfter in Ireland. (4) Selamath- -beautiful to behold, the name of Tofcar's palace, on the east of Ulfter, near the mountain Cromla, the fcene of the epic poem, ter on Cromla. But we are in the dark I, thona, furrounded by the ftorm. The billows lift their white heads above our rocks: and we tremble amidst the night. TOSCAR. Go: Whither is the foul of battle fled, Fercutl with the locks of age? I have feen thee undaunted in danger, and thine eyes burning with joy in the fight. Whither is the foul of battle fled? Our fathers never feared. view the fettling fea: the ftormy wind is laid. The billows ftill tremble [1] on the deep, and feem to fear the blaft. But view the fettling fea morning is gray on our rocks. The fun will look foon from his caft, in all his pride of light. I lifted up my fails, with joy, before the halls of generous Conlath. My courfe was by the ifle of waves, where his love purfued the deer. I faw her, like that beam of the fun that iffues from the cloud. Her hair was on her heaving breaft; she, bending forward, drew the bow her white arm feemed, behind her, like the fnow of Cromla:- Come to my foul, I said, thou huntress of the isle (1)the face of ocean fleeps, And a still horror faddens all the deeps. POP's Homer. of waves! But she fpends her time in tears, and thinks of the generous Conlath. Where can I find thy peace, Cuthona, lovely maid! CUTHONA (1). A diftant fteep bends over the fea, with aged trees and moffy rocks: the billows roll at its feet: on its fide is the dwelling of roes. The people call it Ardven. There the towers of Mora rife. There Conlath looks over the fea for his only love. The daughters of the chace returned, and he beheld their downcaft eyes. Where is the daughter of Rumar? But they answered not. My peace dwells on Ardven, fon of the diftant land! TOSCAR. And Cuthona shall return to her peace; to the halls of generous Conlath. He is the friend of Tofcar: I have feasted in his halls. — Rise, ye gentle breezes of Ullin, and ftretch my fails towards Ardven's shores. Cuthona shall reft on Ardven: but the days of Tofcar will be fad. I shall fit in my cave in the field of the fun. The blaft will ruftle in my trees, and (1) Cu-thona, the mournful found of the waves; a poetical name given her by Offian, on account of her mourning to the found of the waves; her name in tradition is Gorm-huil, the blue - eyed maid. I shall think it is Cuthona's voice. But she is diftant far, in the halls of the mighty Conlath. CUTHONA. Oh! what cloud is that? It carries the ghofts of my fathers. I fee the skirts of their robes, like gray and watry mift. When shall I fall, O Rumar? Sad Cuthona fees her death. Will not Conlath behold me, before I enter the narrow house? (1) OSSIAN. And he will behold thee, O maid he comes along the rolling fea. The death of Tofcar is dark on his fpear; and a wound is in his fide. He is pale at the cave of Thona, and shews his ghaftly wound (2). Where art thou with thy tears, Cuthona? the chief of (1) The grave. (2)—inhumati venit imago Conjugis, ora modis attollens pallida miris Nudavit. VIRG -the ghost appears Of her unhappy lord'; the spectre stares, And with erected eyes his bloody bofom bares. DRYDEN. |