Blair Collection > Galic antiquities

POEM.
»45
{Irength of the bard was great, and his fovil fwelled, Uke Fingal's
fail, in the ftorm of danger.
We * turned in, that night, to the gray tower of Innisfail, and
rejoiced in the fong and the fhelh The burft of grief, at times,
reaches our ears. " UlHn and Sulma, examine whence it comes."
We find Crimoina ftretched on the grave of Armor. — When the
battle had ceafed, and her lover had fallen, fhe too had funk in her
fecret place. All day, beneath the fliade of a young oak flie lay.
At night, fhe made her bed on the grave of her love. — We gently
tore her from her place, as our tears defcended in filence. The
grief of the virgin was great, and our words were uttered only in
fighs.
We brought her to the halls of Innisfail ; and forrow came, like a
cloud, on every face. UUin, at length, took the harp, and bade it
give its tendereft air. Slow, folemn, and foft, his fingers fleal
alcng the trembling firings. The found melts the foul. It calms
the tumult of wo in the breaft.
f " Who bends, he faid, from his airy cloud! who pours the
T piteous
* Upon the authority of the tale, a
fentence or two are here thrown in to
conduft the narration, as the verfe is de-
ficient.
f The fmooth and elegiac ftrain of this
epifode, when fet off with all the charms
of mufic, could not fail to zSc€t every
perfon pofleffed of any fenfibility of heart.
For the fake of thofe who may under-
ftand the original, it is here fubjoined.
Co fo tuirling on cheo!
Sa dortadh a leuin air a ghaoith ?
O's donihum a cJireacIid tha na chliabh ;
'Sis doilleir am fiadh ud ra tliaoLh !
Sud taibhfe Mhorghlain na mais*
Tiiath Sli'-ghlais nan ionia' frulli;
Thainig e gu Morhheinn !e ghaol
Inghean Shora lui chaoine cruth.
Thog eifin r'ar n aonach gun bhaigh,
Min'onn dh'f hag c na tigh.
Thuirling ijall-cheo le oidhche na nial.
Dh'eigh na fruthaibh ;- -(hian na taiblifc.
Thug an og-bhean full ris an I fliabh,
S chunnacas le'a fiadh ro'n cheo ;
Tharruing i'n t freang le rogha beathd :
Fhuaras an gath anu uclid an oig !
Thiolaic fmn 'san tulaich an laoch,
Le gath is cuibhi:e na chaol-tigh.
B'aill le Min'onn luijh fa' fhoid ;