Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

28o THE POETRY OF THE [iX.
Glen Massan, O Glen Massan !
High its herbs, fair its boughs,
Solitary was the place of our repose
On grassy Invermassan.
Glen Etive ! O Glen Etive !
There was raised my earliest home.
Beautiful its woods at sunrise,
When the sun struck on Glen Etive.
Glen Urchay! O Glen Urchay!
The straight glen of smooth ridges.
No man of his age was more joyful
Than Naisi in Glen Urchay.
Glendaruadh ! O Glendaruadh !
Each man who dwells there I love.
Sweet the voice of the cuckoo on bending bough.
On the hill above Glendaruadh.
Beloved is Draighen and its sounding shore.
Beloved the water over the clear pure sands.
O that I might not depart from the east,
Unless I go with my beloved.'
All the places here mentioned are well-known scenes
in Argyll, beloved to this day by the natives — pleasant
memories to m.any a stranger. This is the earliest poem
which celebrates the beauty of those West Highland
shores, and it is said to be one of the oldest poems in the
Gaelic tongue. It is found in a manuscript of the year
1238, and who can say how long before that it had
travelled down, living only on the lips of men ?
I wish I could go on to give more specimens of this
ancient poetry, for there are many more to give. This