Blair Collection > Galic antiquities

A P O E M. 143
fhall tell thy aged father, that he has now no fon; or Vv'ho fliall tell
Crlmoina that her love is dead ? — I fee thy father, bending beneath
the load of years. His hand trembles on the pointlefs fpear ; and
his head, with its few gray hairs, fliakes like the afpen leaf. Every
diftant cloud deceives his dim eye, as he looks, in vain, for thy
bounding Ihip. Joy, like a fun-beam on the blafled heath,
travels over his face of age, as he cries to the children at their play,
' I behold it coming.' They turn their eye on the blue wave, and
tell him they fee but the failing mill. He fliakes, with a iigh, his
gray head, and the cloud of his face is mournful. — I fee Crimoina
fmiling in her morning dream. She thinks thou dofl arrive in all thy
ftately beauty. Her lips, in half-formed words, hail thee in her
dream, and her joyful arms are fpread to clafp thee. — But, alas!
Crlmoina, thou only dreameft. Thy love is fallen. Never more
fliall he tread the fliore of his native land. In the duft of Innisfail
his beauty fleeps ! Thou flialt awake from thy flumber to know it,
Crimoina ; but when fliall Armor awake from his long fleep ?
When fliall the heavy flumber of the tenant of the tomb be ended ?
When fliall the found of the horn awake him to the chace ? When
fliall the noife of the fliield awake him to the battle? — Children of
the chace, Armor is afleep, wait not for his rifing ; for the voice
of the morning fliall never reach his dwelling : fons of the fpear,
the battle mufl be fought without him ; for he is afleep, and no
warning bofs fliall awake him. — Tall wert thou f , Armor, as the
oak
f The ancient bards frequently con- BeanrachJ air anam anlaoidi
elude their epifodes with a repetition of ^" ''^^^'^ ^"°''^' ridoi'sgach grds,
♦V,« Grrt A^.,„™ T„/l^«J „f .U' u Aid Ri" l.o'icann, ccann an t (luaigh,
tne nrlt Itanza. Inttead 01 this, how- "
'S iomad rnaig a chiiire' leis.
ever, many repeat here the following » p^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^1 ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^
■verfes: ,
wrath.