Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TEMORA. 415
' " Selma is opened wide. Bards take the trembling
harps. Ten youths bear the oak of the feast. A
distant sun-beam marks the hill. The dusky waves
of the blast fly over the fields of grass. Why art
thou silent, O Selma? The king returns with all his
fame. Did not the battle roar? yet peaceful is his
brow! It roared, and Fingal overcame. Be like
thy father, O Fillan!"
They move beneath the song. High wave their
arms, as rushy fields, beneath autumnal winds. On
Mora stands tlie king in arms. Mist flies round his
buckler abroad ; as, aloft, it hung on a bough, on
Connul's mossy rock. In silence I stood by Fingal,
and turned my eyes on Cromla's wood : lest I
should behold the host, and rush amid my swelling
soul. My foot is forward on the heath. I glittered,
tall, in steel : like the falling stream of Tromo, which
nightly winds bind over with ice. The boy sees it,
on high, gleaming to the early beam: toward it he
turns his ear, and wonders why it is so silent 1
Nor bent over a stream is Cathmor, like a youth
in a peaceful field. Wide he drew forward the war,
a dark and troubled wave. But when he beheld Fin-
gal on Mora, his generous pride arose. " Shall the
chief of Atha fight, and no king in the field ? Foldath,
lead my people forth. Thou art a beam of fire."
Forth issues Foldath of Moma, like a cloud, the
robe of ghosts. He drew his sword, a flame, from
his side. He bade the battle move. The tribes,
like ridgy waves, dark pour their strength around.
Haughty is his stride before them. His red eye
rolls in wrath. He calls Cormul chief of Dun-
.ratho ; and his words were heard.
" Cormul, thou beholdest that path. It winds
green behind the foe. Place thy people there; lest
Selma should escape from my sword. Bards of
green-valleyed Erin, let no voice of yours arise.
;The sous of Morven must fall without song. They
are the foes of Cairbar. Hereafter shall the tra-
veller meet their dark, thick mist on Lena, where
it wanders with their ghosts, beside the reedy lake.
Never shall they rise, without song, to the dwell,
iag of winds."