Page images
PDF
EPUB

FRAGMENT

I.

SHILRIC, VINVELA.

M

VINVELA.

Y love is a fon of the hill. He purfues the flying deer. His grey dogs are panting around him; his bow-ftring founds in the wind. Whether by the fount of the rock, or by the ftream of the mountain thou lieft; when the rushes are nodding with the wind, and the mist is flying over thee, let me approach my love unperceived, and fee him from the rock. Lovely I faw thee first by the aged oak; thou wert returning tall from the chace; the fairest among thy friends.

[blocks in formation]

SHILRI C.

WHAT Voice is that I hear? that voice like the fummer-wind.- - I fit not by the nodding rufhes; I hear not the fount of the rock. Afar, Vinvela, afar I go to the wars of Fingal. My dogs attend me no more. No more I tread the hill. No more from on high I fee thee, fair-moving by the ftream of the plain; bright as the bow of heaven; as the moon on the aveftern.wave..

VINVEL A.

THEN thou art gone, O Shikic? and I am alone on the hill. The deer are seen on the brow; void of fear they graze along. No more they dread the wind; no more the rustling The hunter is far removed;

tree.

he

he is in the field of graves.

Stran

gers! fons of the waves! fpare my lovely Shilric.

SHILRIC.

IF fall I muft in the field, raise high my grave, Vinvela. Grey ftones, and heaped-up earth, fhall mark me to futuretimes. When the hunter fhall fit by the mound, and produce his food at noon, "fome warrior refts here," he will fay; and my fame fhall live in his, praife. Remember me, Vinvela, when low on earth I lie!

VINVELA..

YES! I will remember thee--indeed my Shilric will fall. What fhall I do,. my love! when thou art gone for ever? Through thefe hills I will go at neon: will go through the filent heath. There:

B. 2.

I will fee where often thou fatteft returning from the chace. Indeed, my Shilric will fall; but I will remember him.

I

II.

SIT by the moffy fountain; on the top of the hill of winds. One tree is ruftling above me. Dark waves roll

over the heath. The lake is troubled below. The deer defcend from the hill. No hunter at a distance is feen ; no whistling cow-herd is mid-day but all is filent. thoughts as I fit alone.

nigh. It is

Sad are my
Didft thou

but appear, 0 my love, a wanderer on the heath thy hair floating on the wind behind thee; thy bofom heaving on the fight; thine eyes full of tears for thy friends, whom the mift of the hill had concealed Thee I would comfort, my love, and bring thee to thy father's houfe.

BUT is it fhe that there appears, like a beam of light on the heath? bright

as

« PreviousContinue »