Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 15/
siirveved the battle. Observe how this critical
event is wrought up by the poet. " Wide
" spreading over echoing Lubar, the flight of
" Bolga is rolled along. Fillan hung forward
*' on their steps ; and strewed the heath with
" dead. Fingal rejoiced over his son. Blue-
" shielded Cathmorrose. Sonof Alpin, bring
" the harp ! Give Fillan's praise to the wind ;
" raise high his praise in my hall, while yet he
" shines in war. Leave, blue-eyed Clatho ! leave
" thy hall ; behold that early beam of thine !
" The host is withered in its course. No far-
" ther look it is dark light trembling
" from the harp, strike, virgins! strike the sound."
The sudden interruption, and suspense of the
narration on Cathmor's rising from his hill, the
abrupt bursting into the praise of Fillan, and
the passionate apostrophe to his mother Clatho,
are admirable efforts of poetical art, in order to
interest us in Fillan's danger ; and the whole is
heightened by the immediate following simile,
one of the most magnificent and sublime that is
to be met with in any poet, and which, if it had
been found in Homer, would have been the fre-
quent subject of admiration to critics : " Fillan
" is like a spirit of heaven, that descends from
" the skirt of his blast. The troubled ocean
" feels -his steps, as he strides from wave to