Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

on the Poems of Ossian. 119
general storehouse of all imagery, the groundwork
of their comparisons must of course be frequently
the same. I shall select only a few of the most
considerable from both poets. Mr. Pope's transla-
tion of Homer can be of no use to us here. The
parallel is altogether unfair between prose, and the
imposing harmony of flowing numbers. It is only
by viewing Homer in the simplicity of a prose
translation, that we can form any compt-rison be-
tween the two bards.
The shock of two encountering armies, the
noise and the tumult of battle afford one of the
most grand and awful subjects of description ; on
which all epic poets have exerted their strength.
Let us first hear Homer. The following description
is a favourite one, for we find it twice repeated in
the same words.* " When now the conflicting
hosts joined in the field of battle, then were mu-
tually opposed shields, and swords, and the strength
of armed men. The bossy bucklers were dashed
against each other. The universal tumult rose.
There were mingled the triumphant shouts and the
dying groans of the victors and the vanquished.
The earth streamed with blood. As when winter
torrents, rushing from the mountains, pour into a
narrow valley their violent waters : They issue
from a thousand springs, and mix in the hollowed
channel. The distant shepherd hears on the
mountain their roar from afar. Such was the
terror and the shout of the engaging armies." In
another passage, the poet, much in the manner of
Ossian, heaps simile on simile, to express the vast-
ness of the idea with which his imagination seems
to labour. " With a mighty shout the hosts
engage. Not so loud roars the wave of ocean,
when driven against the shore by the whole force
of the boisterous north ; not so loud in the woods
of the mountain, the noise of the flame, when
* Iliad, iv. 46.; and Diad, viii. 60.