Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

±y^ T E M o R A : Book VII.
wandering locks. Not there is the ftride of Larthon, chief
of Inis-huna. He mounts the wave on his own dark oak,
in Cluba's ridgy bay. That oak which he cut from Lu-
mon, to bound along the fea. The maids turn their eyes
away, left the king fhould be lowly laid ; for never had
they feen a fliip, dark rider of the vrave!
" Now he dares to call the winds, and to mix with the
mift of ocean. Blue Inis-fail rofe, in fmoke ; but dark-
ikirtcd night came down. The fons of Bolga feared.
The fiery haired Ton-thena rofe. Culbin's bay received
the lliip, in the bofom of its echoing woods. There, if-
fued a ftream, from Duthuma's horrid cave ; where fpi-
rits gleamed, at times, with their half-finiflied forms.
" Dreams defcended on Larthon : he faw feven fpirits
of his fathers. He heard their half-formed words, and
dimly beheld the times to come. He beheld the kings
of Atha, the fons of future days. They led their holts,
along the field, like ridges of mift, which winds pour, in
lutumn, over Atha of the groves.
tu" Larthon raifed the hall of Samla*, to the foft found
inghe harp. He went forth to the roes of Erin, to their
of led ftreams. Nor did he forget green-headed Lu-
the c he often bounded over his leas, to where white-
of Bed Flathal-j- looked from the hill of roes. Lumon
bofhe foamy ftreams, thou rifeft on Fonar's foul."
^ The beam awaked in the eaft. The mifty heads of
the mountains rofe. Valleys fhew, on every fide, the
gray-winding of their ftreams. His hoft heard the fliield
ofCathmor: at once they rofe around; like a crow^ded
lea, when firft it feels the wings of the wind. The waves
know not whither to roll ; they lift their troubled heads.
Sad and How retired Sul-malla to Lona of the ftreams.
She went and often turned; her blue eyes rolled in tears.
But when flie came to the rock, that darkly covered Lo-
iia's vale : ftie looked, from her burfting foul, on the king ;
and funk, at once, behind.
Son:|:of Alpin, ftrike the ftring. Is there ought of
joy
• Samla, apparitior.s, fo called from the vifion of Larthon, concerning his pof-
terity.
f Flathal, hea'venly, cxqvifitely beautiful. She was the wife of Larthon.
t The original of this lyric ode is one of th.e mod beautiful palTages of the poem.
The harmony and variety of its verfification prove, that the knowledge of mufic
was confiderably advanced in the days of OHian. See tl«e Ipecimen of the original.