Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 191
" rages ; as was the clamour of the Greeks and
" Trojans, when, roaring terrible, they rushed
" against each other.""
To these descriptions and similes, we may
oppose the following from Ossian, and leave the
reader to judge between them. He will find
images of the same kind employed ; commonly
less extended; but thrown forth with a glowing
rapidity, which characterises our poet. " As
*' autumn's dark storms pour from two echoing
" hills, towards each other, approached the he-
" roes. As two dark streams from high rocks
*' meet and mix, and roar on the plain ; loud,
" rough, and dark in battle, meet Lochlin and
" Inisfail. Chief mixed his strokes with chief,
" and man with man. Steel clanging, sounded
" on steel. Helmets are cleft on high ; blood
" bursts and smoaks around. — As the troubled
" noise of the ocean, when roll the waves on
" high ; as the last peal of the thunder of hea-
" ven, such is the noise of battle." — " As roll a
" thousand waves to the rock, so Swaran's host
" came on ; as meets a rock a thousand waves,
" so Inisfail met Swaran. Death raises all his
" voices around, and mixes with the sound of
" shields. — The field echoes from wing to wing,
*' as a hundred hammers that rise by turns on
'^ Iliadj xiv. SQ.I.