The Literature of the Highlanders: A History of Gaelic Literature from the Earliest Times to the Present Day |
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The Literature of the Highlanders: A History of Gaelic Literature from the ... Nigel MacNeill No preview available - 2013 |
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Albannach Albin ancient appears Argyllshire ballads bard battle beautiful Book brave Brigit Brythonic Campbell Celtic Celts century character chief Christ Christian Church clans Columba composed compositions death Diarmad Dugald Buchanan Duncan early English Erin fair father Féinne Fingal Finian Finn Fionn Gael Gaelic bards Gaelic language Gaelic literature Gaelic poetry Glasgow gospel heart heroes Highland holy hymns Iain Lom Inverness Iona Ireland Irish island Islay Isles Jacobite James Macpherson John King labours land Latin Leabhar Lismore literary lived Loch Lord Macdonald Macgregor Mackay MacLauchlan MacLean Macleod Macpherson manuscripts Mo Valie Veg muse native Norse o'er original Oscar Ossian Patrick period Perthshire Picts poems poet poetic popular productions prose published race religious Rob Donn Roman saints scholars Scotland Scots Scottish shore songs spirit sweet thee thou tion translation verses volume writer written
Popular passages
Page 231 - We were now treading that illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity...
Page 36 - Hymnorum/ a MS. belonging to Trinity College, Dublin, and written, as Dr. Stokes conjectures, about the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century. The ^ hymn itself, however, belongs to a much earlier date.
Page 274 - In sooth, twas strange, this old man's verse Could call them from their marble hearse. The Harper smiled, well-pleased ; for ne'er Was flattery lost on poet's ear : A simple race ! they waste their toil For the vain tribute of a smile...
Page 194 - OSSIAN. The Poems of Ossian in the Original Gaelic. With a Literal Translation into English, and a Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Poems.
Page 66 - He never could spend the space of even one hour without study, or prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation. So incessantly was he engaged night and day in the unwearied exercise of fasting and watching, that the burden of each of these austerities would seem beyond the power of human endurance.
Page 184 - M'Pherson's Ossian to be more like the original than Pope's Homer. — Johnson. " Well, sir, this is just what I always maintained. He has found names, and stories, and phrases, nay passages in old songs, and with them has blended his own compositions, and so made what he gives to the world as the translation of an ancient poem.
Page 231 - Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among...
Page 236 - ... his youth he indulged in the composition of profane pieces. According to Reid, his hymn was first published in Glasgow about the year 1750. It had, however, an earlier publication among the people through many persons that learned it by heart and loved to repeat it on account of its helpful statement of Gospel truths. It consists of thirty-three stanzas or quatrains, and furnishes a Scriptural exposition of the theme he took up. The date of his death is as uncertain as that of his birth, but...
Page 230 - Leland begins his history too late; the ages which deserve an exact inquiry are those times (for such there were) when Ireland was the school of the west, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature.
Page 163 - Lochiel ! Lochiel, beware of the day When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array! For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight, And the clans of Culloden are scattered in fight: They rally, they bleed, for their kingdom and crown; Woe, woe to the riders that trample them down. Proud Cumberland prances, insulting the slain, And their hoof-beaten bosoms are trod to the plain.