Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

DAR-THULA. 317
lift up their heads : they, who were ashamed in thy
presence, will rejoice. Thou art now clothed with
thy brightness. Look from thy g?tes in the sky.
Burst the cloud, O -vvind ! that the daughter of night
may look forth; that the shaggy mountains may
brighten, and the ocean roll its white waves in light.
Nathos is on the deep, and Althos, that beam of
youth. Ardan is near his brothers. They move in
the gloom of their course. The sons of Usnoth move
in darkness, from the wrath of Cairbarof Erin. Who
is that, dim by their side ? The night has covered
her beauty! Her hair sighs on ocean's wind. Her
robe streams in dusky wreaths. She is like the fair
spirit of heaven in the midst of his shadowy mist.
Who is it but Dar-thula, the first of Erin's maids?
She has fled from the love of Cairbar, with blue-
shielded Nathos. But the winds deceive thee, O Dar-
thula ! They deny the woody Etha to thy sails.
These are not the motintains of Nathos ; nor is that
the roar of his climbing waves. The halls of Cairbar
are near : the towers of the foe lift their heads ! Erin
Stretches its green head into the sea. Tura's bay re-
ceives the ship. Where have ye been, ye southern
winds, when the sons of my love were deceived? But
ye have been sporting on the plains, pursuing the
thistle's beard. that ye had been rustling in the
sails of Nathos, tiU the hills of Etha arose ! till they
arose in their clouds, and saw their returning cliief I
Long hast thou been absent, Nathos ! the day of thy
return is past !
But the land of strangers saw thee, lovely ! thou
wast lovely in the eyes of Dar-thula. Thy face was
like the light of the morning. Thy hair like the
raven's wing. Thy soul was generous and miid, like
the hour of the setting sun. Thy words were the gale
of the reeds ; the ghding stream of Lora ! But when
the rage of battle rose, thou wast a sea in a storm.
The clang of thy arms was terrible : the host vanish-
ed at the sound of thy course. It was then Dar-thula
beheld thee, from the top of her mossy tower: from
the tower of Selama, where her fathers dwelt.
' Lovely art thou, O stranger!' she said, for her
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