Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

37G The Poems of Osslan.
borne Comlial !' ' Yet tliey may be rolled away,'
I said in my rising soul. * We are not of the race
of the feeble, king of blue-shielded hosts 1 Why
should fear come amongst us, like a ghost of night ?
The soul of the valiant grows, when foes increase
in the field. Roll no darkness, king of Erin, on
the young in war !'
"The bursting tears of the king came down.
He seized my hand in silence. ' Race of the daring
Trenmor !' at length he said, ' I roll no cloud be-
fore thee. Thou bmniest in the fire of thy fathers.
I behold thy fame. It marks thy course in battle,
like a stream of light. But wait the coming cf
Cairbar ; my son must join thy sword. He calls
the sons of Erin, from all their distant streams.'
" We came to the hall of the king, where it rose
in the midst of rocks, on whose dark sides were the
marks of streams of old. Broad oaks bend around
with their moss. The thick birch is waving near.
Half-hid, in her shady grove, Ros-crana raises the
song. Her white hands move on the harp. I
beheld her blue-rolling eyes. She was like a spirit
of heaven half-folded in the skirt of a cloud !
" Three days we feasted at Moi-lena. She
rises bright in my troubled soul. Cormac beheld me
dark. He gave the white-bosomed maid. Shecomes
with bending eye, amid the wandering of her heavy
locks. She came ! Straight the battle roared. Colc-
uUa appeared : I took my spear. My sword rose,
with my people, against the ridgy foe. Alnecma
fled. Colc-uUa fell. Fingal returned with fame.
' ' Renowned is he, O Fillan, who fights in the
strength of his host. The bard pursues his steps,
through the land of the foe. But he who fights
alone, few are his deeds to other times ! He shines,
to-day, a mighty light : To-morrow, he is low.
One song contains his fame. His name is on one
dark field. He is forgot ; but where his tomb
sends forth the tufted grass."