Ossian Collection > Fingal

( 104 )
THE
WAR of INIS-THONA*:
A POEM.
OUR youth is like the dream of the hunter on the hill of heath.
Me lleeps in the mild beams of the fun -, but he awakes amidfl
aftornii the red lightning flies around: and the trees Ihake their
heads to the wind. He looks back with joy, on the day of the
fun ; and the pleafant dreams of his reft !
When ihall Offian's youth return, or his ear delight in the found
of arms ? When lliall I, like Ofcar, travel -f- in the light of my
fteel ? — Come, with your ftreams, ye hills of Cona, and liften to
the voice of OfTian ! The fong rifes, like the fun, in my foul ; and
my heart feels the joys of other times.
I BEHOLD thy towers, O Selmal and the oaks of thy fhaded
wall : — thy ftreams found in my ear ; thy heroes gather round.
Fingal fits in the midft ; and leans on the Ihield of Trenmor : — his
* Inis-thona, /. e. the ijland cf waves, woven. The work itfelf is loft, but fome
was a country of Scandinavia fubje£l to its epifodes, and the ftory of the poem, are
own king, but depending upon the king- handed down by tradition. There are
dom of Lochlin. — This poem is an epifode fome now living, who, in their youth, have
introduced in a great work compofed by heard the whole repeated.
Ofliar, in which the anions of his friends, f Travelling in the greatnefs of his
and his beloved fon Ofcar, were inter- ftrength. Is.aIAH Ixiii. i-
fpear