Some of Ossian's Lesser Poems Rendered Into Verse: With a Preliminary Discourse in Answer to Mr. Laing's Critical and Historical Dissertation on the Antiquity of Ossian's Poems

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J. M'Creery, 1805 - 284 pages

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Page 146 - O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! Whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth, in thy awful beauty; the stars hide themselves in the sky; the moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself movest alone; who can be a companion of thy course!
Page 146 - The oaks of the mountains fall; the mountains themselves decay with years; the ocean shrinks and grows again; the moon herself is lost in heaven, but thou art for ever the same, rejoicing in the brightness of thy course. When the world is dark with tempests, when thunder rolls and lightning flies, thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laughest at the storm.
Page 182 - Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill Appear in Writing or in Judging ill; But, of the two, less dang'rous is th...
Page 182 - Tis hard to say if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill ; But of the two less dangerous is th' offence To tire our patience than mislead our sense : Some few in that, but numbers err in this; Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss ; A fool might once himself alone expose ; Now one in verse makes many more in prose.
Page 147 - Ossian thou lookest in vain; for he beholds thy beams no more, whether thy yellow hair floats on the eastern clouds, or thou tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art, perhaps, like me, for a season; thy years will have an end. Thou shalt sleep in thy clouds, careless of the voice of the morning. Exult then, O Sun ! in the strength of thy youth; — Age is dark and unlovely : it is like the glimmering light of the moon, when it shines through broken clouds, and the mist is on the hills ; when...
Page 140 - Gael-strains chant themselves from the mists— ["Be thy soul blest, O Carril! in the midst of thy eddying winds. O that thou would'st come to my hall when I am alone by night! And thou dost come, my friend. I hear often thy light hand on my harp, when it hangs on the distant wall, and the feeble sound touches my ear.
Page 145 - Ossian course; the moon, without strength, goes from the sky, hiding herself under a wave in the west. Thou art in thy journey alone; who is so bold as to come nigh thee? The oak falleth from the high mountain; the rock and the precipice...
Page 147 - ... at the storm. But to Ossian thou lookest in vain, for he beholds thy beams no more; whether thy yellow hair flows on the eastern clouds, or thou tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art perhaps, like me, for a season; thy years will have an end. Thou shalt sleep in thy clouds careless of the voice of the morning. Exult then, 0 sun, in the strength of thy youth!
Page 41 - You too, ye bards! whom sacred raptures fire. To chant your heroes to your country's lyre; Who consecrate, in your immortal strain, Brave patriot souls, in righteous battle slain, Securely now the tuneful task renew, And noblest themes in deathless songs pursue.
Page 138 - Like as the lion growleth, Even the young lion over his prey ; Though the whole company of shepherds be called together against him : At their voice he will not be terrified, Nor at their tumult will he be humbled : So shall JEHOVAH God of Hosts descend to fight, For Mount Sion, and for his own hill.

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