J. F. Campbell Collection > Temora, an ancient epic poem, in eight books

An epic poem. ioi
* Now is the coming forth of Catlimor, in the armour of kings!
Dark-rolled the eagle's wing, above his helmet of fire. Uncon-
cerned are his fteps, as if they were to the chace of Atha. He
raifed, at times, his terrible voice ; Erin, abaflied, gathered round.
— Their fouls returned back, like a ftream : they wondered at the
fteps of their fear : for he rofe, like the beam of the morning on a
haunted heath : the traveller looks back, with bending eye, on the
field of dreadful forms.
Sudden, from the rock of Moi-lena, are Sul-malla's trembling
fteps. An oak took the Ipear from her hand ; half-bent fhe loofed die
lance : but then are her eyes on the king, from amidfl her wander-
ing locks. — No friendly ftrife is before thee ; no light contending of
bows, as when the youth of Cluba -j- came forth beneath the eye
of Conmor.
* The appearance of Cathmor is mag-
nificent : his unconcerned gait, and the
efFeiS which his very voice has upon his
flying army, are circumftances calcu-
lated to raife our ideas of his fuperior me-
rit and valour. OfTian is very impartial,
with regard to his enemies ; this, how-
ever, cannot be faid of other poets of great
eminence and unqueftioned merit. Mil-
ton, of the firft clafs of poets, is undoubt-
edly the moft irreprehenfible in this re-
fpe(£l ; for we always pity or admire his
Devil, but feldom deteft him, even tho'
he is the arch enemy of our fpecies. Man-
kind generally take fides with the unfortu-
nate and daring. It is from this difpofition
that many readers, tho' otherwife good
chriftians, have almoft wifhed fuccefs to
Satan, in his defperate and daring voyage
from hell, through the regions of chaos
and night.
t Clu-ba, winding bay ; an arm of the
fea in Inis-huna, or the weftern coafl of
South-Britain. It was in this bay that
Cathmor was wind-bound when Sul-mal-
la came, in the difguife of a young war-
rior, to accompany him in his voyage to
Ireland. Conmor, the father of Sul-malla,
as we learn from her foliloquy, at the clofe
of the fourth book, was dead before the
departure of his daughter.
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