Ossian has superseded Homer in my heart. To what a world does the
illustrious bard carry me! To wander over pathless wilds, surrounded by
impetuous whirlwinds, where, by the feeble light of the moon, we see
the spirits of our ancestors; to hear from the mountain-tops, mid the
roar of torrents, their plaintive sounds issuing from deep caverns, and
the sorrowful lamentations of a maiden who sighs and expires on the
mossy tomb of the warrior by whom she was adored. I meet this bard with
silver hair; he wanders in the valley; he seeks the footsteps of his
fathers, and, alas! he finds only their tombs. Then, contemplating the
pale moon, as she sinks beneath the waves of the rolling sea, the
memory of bygone days strikes the mind of the hero,--days when
approaching danger invigorated the brave, and the moon shone upon his
bark laden with spoils, and returning in triumph. When I read in his
countenance deep sorrow, when I see his dying glory sink exhausted into
the grave, as he inhales new and heart-thrilling delight from his
approaching union with his beloved, and he casts a look on the cold
earth and the tall grass which is so soon to cover him, and then
exclaims, "The traveller will come,--he will come who has seen my
beauty, and he will ask, 'Where is the bard,--where is the illustrious
son of Fingal?' He will walk over my tomb, and will seek me in vain!"
Then, O my friend, I could instantly, like a true and noble knight,
draw my sword, and deliver my prince from the long and painful languor
of a living death, and dismiss my own soul to follow the demigod whom
my hand had set free!
Oct. 19.
Alas! the void--the fearful void, which I feel in my bosom! Sometimes I
think, if I could only once--but once, press her to my heart, this
dreadful void would be filled.
Oct. 26.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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