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

J^ i REPORr ON THE
Chief of the hofl of levere (harp pointed weapons j
Cut down to death,
So chat no white-failed bark
Miy float round dark Iniftore.
Like the deftroying thunder
Be thy ftroke, O hero !
Thy forward eye like the flaming bolt !
As the fimi rock,
Unwavering be thy heart.
As the flame of night be thy fword.
Uplift thy fliield,
Of the hue of blood.
As a [The words in the original are not intelligible.^
Offspring of the chiefs
Of fnorting fteeds,
Cut down the foes to eaith !'
Befides tills meafure of a fliorter and more rapid
kind, fuited to certain lyric paffages in the ancient
poetry, there is fometimes found 3. variation in mea-
fure and cadence, imputed by Gaelic fcholars to a
defire in the poet of accommodating the rythm of
his lines to the ftate of mind or emotion of the per-
fon who is the fuppofed fpeaker of them. Such is
the paiTage in the poem of Gaul, already fo parti-
cularly noticed by the Committee, where the hero
is reprefented as balancing with anxious inquietude
between the fenfe of danger and the dread of fiianie.
The palTage is entitled in the original, ' lom-cheift
Ghuill,* the anxiety of Gaul. (Sean Dana, p. 27.)
' 'S am bheileam fein am aonar,
Am meafg nan ceuda colg ;
Gun lann liomhaidh learn