Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

38 F I N G A L. book ii.
her sorrow. * But who is she, that, like a sun-beam, flies before
the ranks of the foe ? It is Degrena,f lovely fair, the spouse of
fallen Crugal, Her hair is on the wind behind. Her eye is red;
her voice is shrill. Green, empty is thy Crugal now, his form
is in the cave of the hill. He comes to the ear of reft, and raises his
feeble voice; like the humming of the mountain-bee, or collefted
flies of evening. But Degrena falls like a cloud of the morn;
the sword of Lochlin is in her side. Cairbar, she is fallen, the
rising thought of thy youth. She is fallen, O Cairbar, the thought
of thy youthful hours."
Fierce Cairbar heard the mournful sound, and rushed on like
ocean's whale; he saw the death of his daughter; and roared in
the midst of thousands. |1 His spear met a son of Lochlin, and
battle spread from wing to wing. As a hundred winds in Loch-
lin's groves^ as fire in the firs of a hundred hills; so loud, so ruinous
and vast the ranks of men are hewn down. Cuchullin cut off
heroes like thistles, and Swaran wasted Erin. Curach fell by his
hand, and Cairbar of the bossy shield. Morglan lies in lasting
rest; and Ca-olt quivers as he dies. His white breast is stained
with his blood; and his yellow hair stretched in the dust of his
native land. He often had spread the feast where he fell; and
often raised the voice of the harp: when his dogs leapt around
for joy; and the youths of the chase prepared the bow.
Still Swaran advanced, as a stream that bursts from the desart.
The little hills are rolled in its course; and the rocks half-sunk
by its side. But Cuchullin stood before him like a hill,§ that
catches the clouds of heaven. The winds contend on its head of
pines; and the hail rattles on its rocks. But, firm in its strength,
it stands and shades the silent vale of Cona.
So
* Crugal had married Degrena but a little time before the battle, consequently
she may with propriety be called a stranger in the hall of her sorrow,
f Deo-grena signifies a sun-beam.
II Mcd'thquc hi ■mnilbus ardet. Virg.
<5 Virgil and Milton have made use of a comparison similar to this; I shall lay
both before the reader, and let him judge for himself which of these two great
jiocts have best succeeded.
Like Eryx or like Athos great he shows
Or father Appenine when white with snows;
His head divine obscure in clouds he hides,
And shakes the sounding forrest on his sid«. Drydtr,-