Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

428 THE POEMS OF OSSIAN.
No bard shall be wanting at thy tomb, when thou
art lowly laid. The sons of song love the valiant,
Cathmor, thy name is a pleasant gale. The mourn-
ful sounds arise ! On Lubar's field there is a voice !
Louder still, ye shadowy ghosts! The dead were
full of fame ! Shrilly swells the feeble sound. The
rougher blast alone is heard! Ah! soon is Cath-
mor low !" Rolled into himself he flew, wide on the^
bosom of winds. The old oak felt his departure,
and shook its whistling head. Cathmor starts fronn
rest. He takes his deathful spear. He lifts hisi
eyes around. He sees but dark-skirted night.
" It was the voice of the king," he said. " But*
now his form is gone. Unmarked is your path in^t
the air, ye children of the night. Often, like a re-
flected beam, are ye seen in the desert wild: but*
ye retire in your blasts, before our steps approach.-
Go, then, ye feeble race ! Knowledge with you there ^
is none ! Your joys are weak, and like the dreams
of our rest, or the light-winged thought, that flies
across the soul. Shall Cathmor soon below ? Darkly
laid in his narrow house ? Where no morning comes,
with her half-opened eyes? Away, thou shade ! to
fight is mine! All further thought away! I rush
forth on eagle's wings, to seize my beam of fame.
In the lonely vale of streams, abides the narrow*
soul. Years roll on, seasons return, but he is still
unknown. In a blast comes cloudy death, and lays
his grey head low. His ghost is folded in the va«<
pour of the fenny field. Its course is never onhillSj!
nor mossy vales of wind. So shall not Cathmor
depart. No boy in the field was he, who only marks-
the bed of roes, upon the echoing hills. My issuing)
forth was with kings. My joy in dreadful plains:
where broken hosts are rolled away, like seas be-'
fore the wind."
So spoke the king of Alnecma, brightening in his' i
rising soul. Valour, like a pleasant flame, is gleam-i-
ing within his breast. Stately is his stride on the
heath! The beam of east is poured around. He
saw his grey host on the field, wide-spreading their
ridges in light, He rejoiced, like a spirit of heaven, i