Ossian Collection > Thoughts on the origin and descent of the Gael

454
Nan leanuinn am fiadh cho luatli
Ri teas chorahrag chruai nan lot."
Literal Translation.
" Let the winds of Erin rise on high ;
Let the dark blast descend from above ;
Let me fall with ghosts to death ;
Should I follow the deer with such speed
As the hot hard contest of wounds."
Neither Milton's fury, tempest, nor wracking
whirlwinds, nor Macpherson's dark winds of
Erin, nor the roaring whirlwinds of Lara, nor
torn in a cloud by angry ghosts of men, are to
be found in the pure, the simple, and chaste
poetry of Ossian.
Criticism, p. 19 — " JVhen it moves on the plains
" of autumn, bearing the death of thousands along.''
" A concealed imitation of Homer's Dog-star,
" Iliad, xxii. 26. " Briglit he strode along the
^^ plain, like the star, which in autumn ascends —
" pouring heat and fell disease on the nations of
" hapless men" Macpherson's Homer, ii. 328.
" And, to conceal the imitation, Achilles, rush-
" ing along the plain, like the dog-star that rises
" in autumn, is converted into the mist of marshy
" Lano, " when it sails over \.ht plains of autumn,
" bringing death to the people." First Edit.