Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

ON THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. 135
that we can form any comparison between the two
bards.
The shoot of two encountering armies, the noise ani
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 hi-st hear Homer.
The following description is a favourite one, for -sve
find it twice repeated in the same words.* ' When
now the conflicting hosts joined in the field of battle,
then were mutually 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
dj-ing groans of the victors and the vanquished. The
earth streamed with blood. As when winter ton-ents,
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 dis-
tant shepherd hears on the mountain their roar from
afar. Such was the terror and the shout of the engag-
ing armies.' In another passage, the poet, much in
the manner of Ossian, heaps simile on simile, to ex-
press the vastness of the idea with which his imagina-
tion seems to labour. ' With a mighty shout the hosts
engage. Kot 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 rising in its fury
to consume the forest ; not so loud the wind among the
lofty oaks, when the vvTath of the storm rages ; as was
the clamom- of the Greeks and Trojans, when, roaring
terrible, they rushed against each other. 't
To these descriptions and similes, -we may oppose
the following from Ossian, and leave the reader to
judge between them. He v.ill find images of the same
kind employed ; commonly less extended ; butthrov/n
forth with a glowing rapidity which characterizes our
poet. ' As autumn's dark storms pour from two echo-
ing hills, towards each other approached the heroes.
As two dark streams from high rocks meet and mix,
and roar on the plains ; loud, rough, and dark in battle,
* Iliad, iv. 46 ; and Iliad, viii. 60. t Iliad, xiv. 393.