J. F. Campbell Collection > Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian

POEMS OF OSSIAN. 6à
Young is the man-child on her bofom ;
Sweet is her hum in his ear ;
But a figh has wafted away the fong.
On Gaul thy thoughts ajre fixed, Evirchoma !'
The break of tendernefs in Gaul's recolle£lion of
his wife and child, which crofles for a moment the
ftern unyielding refolution not to turn his back on
his foes, which, with the fuperftition of thofe he-
roic times, he fuppofes would give anguilh and fhame
to his brave father's fpirit, is one of thofe happy
flrokes which mark the true feeling and fpirit of
a poet.
♦ Morni! beliold me from the mountain.
Thy own foul was as an impetuous cun-ent
Foaming white within a rocky ftrait :
Such is the foul of thy fon
Evirchoma ! Ogall ! —
But mild beams belong not to the ftorm ;
The foul of Gaul is in the roar of battle.*
The anxiety of the wife and mother is not lefs
naturally exprefled in the following lines uttered by
Evirchoma.
* What has detained thee, my love !
Behind the reft in the Ifle of Freona,
While I bewail on the flielving rocks,
And echo anfwers to my fpeech ?
Might'ft thou not have returned by this time,
Though mifchance by fea had befallen thee.
Thy expedation being towards the child of thy love,
Who pours with me the earneft figh ?
Woeful, that thou canft not hear, my love !
E The