Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

212 THE POEMS OF OSSIAr?.
was no more. He leaned on her gray mossy stone;
he thought Vinvela lived. He saw her fair moving on
the plain ; but the bright form lasted not : the sunbeam
fled from the field, and she was seen no more. Hear
the song of Shilric ; it is soft, but sad !
I sit by the mossy fountain ; on the top of the hill of
winds. One tree is rustling above me. Dark wavea
roll over the heath. The lake is troubled below. The
deer descend from the hill. No hunter at a distance
is seen. It is mid-day: but all is silent. Sad are my
thoughts alone. Didst thou but appear, O my love ? a
wanderer on the heath ? thy hair floating on the wind
behind thee ; thy bosom heaving on the sight ; thine
eyes full of tears for thy friends, wliom the mists of the
hill had concealed ? Thee I would comfort, my love,
and bring thee to thy father's house ?
But is it she that there appears, like a beam of light
on the heath ? bright as the moon in autumn, as the
sun in a summer storm, comest thou, O maid, over
rocks, over mountains, to me ? She speaks : but how
weak her voice ! like the breeze in the reeds of the
lake.
" Returnest thou safe from the war ? Where are thy
friends, my love ? I heard of thy death on the hill ; I
beard and mourned thee, Shilric ! Yes, my fair, I re-
turn : but I alone of my race. Thou shalt see them
no more ; their graves I raised on the plain. But
why art thou on the desert hill ? Why on the heath
alone ?
" Alone I am, O Shilric! alone in the winter-house.
With grief for thee I fell. Shilric, I am pale in the
tomb."
She fleets, she sails away ; as mist before the wind '
and wilt thou not stay, Vinvela ? Stay, and behold mv
tears ! Fair thou appearest, Vinvela ! fair thoa wasl*
when alive !