University of Virginia Library

IMITATED FROM OSSIAN

(BARRATHAN)

The shades of night are gath'ring fast,
And coldly blows the ev'ning blast;
Unshelter'd on the rocky shore
I sit, whilst foaming billows roar
Around in wild commotion;
But colder is my fate severe
For ever doom'd to linger here,
Doom'd here to waste my morn of life
And mark your never-ending strife,
Blue tumbling waves of ocean!
Not always by the roaring wave,
Where sullen blasts are yelling,
Not always in the dreary cave
Was Nina-thoma's dwelling.
Once in the echoing hall of Kings
Oft as the shades of ev'ning fell
I struck my Harp's responsive strings
And bade the song of pleasure swell.

181

Then, Uthal, with insidious art,
Then didst thou gain my Virgin heart,
For thee Torthoma's halls I fled,
With thee each happy day I led
Unthinking of to-morrow:
What love was e'er more true than mine?
False as thou art, it still is thine;
Then wherefore leave me here to pine
In never-ceasing sorrow?