Ossian Collection > Fingal

( 95 )
THE
WAR of CAROS*:
A POEM.
BRING, daughter ofTofcar, bring the harp; the hght of the
fong rifes in OfTian's foul. It is Hke the field, when darknefs
covers the hills around, and the fliadow grows flowly on the plain
of the fun.
I BEHOLD my fon, O Malvina, near the moffy rock of Crona -f j
but it is the mift ^ of the defart tinged with the beam of the weft :
Lovely is the mift that affumes the form of Ofcar ! turn from it, ye
winds, when ye roar on the fide of Ardven.
Who comes towards my fon, with the murmur of a fong ? His
ftaffis in his hand, his gray hair loofe on the wind. Surly joy
* Caro3 is probably the noted ufurper party under the command of Ofcar the fon
Caraufius, by birth a Menapian, who af- of Offian. This battle is the foundation
fumed the purple in the year 284; and, of the prefent poem, which is addrefled to
feizing on Britain, defeated the emperor Malvina the daughter of Tofcar.
Maximlan Herculius in feveral naval en- f Crona is the name of a fmall ftream
gagements, which gives propriety to his which runs into the Carron. On its
being called in this poem the king cfJJnps. banks is the fcene of the preceding drama-
He repaired Agricola's wall, in order tic poem.
to ob(lru£l the incurfions of the Caledo- J Who is this that cometh out of the
nians ; ar.d when he was employed in that vvildernefs like pillars of fmoke.
work, it appears he was attacked by a Sclokon's Song.
I lightens