Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

410 OSSIAN
How are ye changed, my friends, since the days of
Selma's feast? when we contended, like gales of spring,
as they fly along the hill, and bend by turns the feebly-
whistling grass.
Minona * came forth in her beauty ; with down-cast
look and tearful eye. Her hair flew slowly on the
blast, that rushed unfrequent from the hill. The souls
of the heroes were sad when she raised the tuneful
voice. Often had they seen the grave of Salgar, t the
dark dwelling of white-bosomed Colma. J Colma left
alone on the hill, with all her voice of song ! Salgar
promised to come : but the night descended around.
Hear the voice of Colma, when she sat alone on the
hill!
COLMA.
It is night; I am alone, forlorn on the hill of storms.
The wind is heard in the mountain. The torrent pours
down the rock. No hut receives me from the rain,
forlorn on the hill of winds.
Rise, moon ! from behind thy clouds. Stars of the
night, arise 1 Lead me, some light, to the place where
my love rests from the chase alone ! his bow near him,
unstrung : his dogs panting around him. But here I
must sit alone, by the rock of the mossy stream. The
stream and the wind roar aloud. I hear not the voice
of my love 1 Why delays my Salgar, why the chief
of the hill, his promise? Here is the rock, and here
the tree ! here is the roaring stream ! Thou didst
promise with night to be here. Ah ! whither is my
Salgar gone ? With thee I would fly, from my
father ; with thee, from my brother of pride. Our
* Ossian introduces Minona, not in the ideal scene in his
own mind which he had described, but at the annual feast of
Selma, where the bards repeated their works before Fingal.
t Sealg-'er, a hunter.
X Culmath, a wo»ian witli fiiie hair.