Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT POETRY, COLLECTED IN HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND, SELECTION, by JAMES MACPHERSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FRAGMENTS OF ANCIENT POETRY, COLLECTED IN HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND, SELECTION, by                 Poet Analysis    
First Line: I sit by the mossy fountain; on top of the hill of winds
Last Line: Passest, when mid-day is silent around.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ossian
Subject(s): Death; Graves; Grief; Poetry & Poets; Solitude; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones; Sorrow; Sadness; Loneliness


I SIT by the mossy fountain; on the top of the hill of winds. One tree is
rustling above me. Dark waves roll over the heath. The lake is troubled below.
The deer descend from the hill. No hunter at a distance is seen; no whistling
cow-herd is nigh. It is mid-day: but all is silent. Sad are my thoughts as I sit
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, whom the mist 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?—She speaks: but how weak
her voice! like the breeze in the reeds of the pool. Hark!
'Returnest thou safe from the war? Where are thy friends, my love? I heard of
thy death on the hill; I heard and mourned thee, Shilric!'
'Yes, my fair, I return; 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
expired. Shilric, I am pale in the tomb.'
She fleets, she sails away; as grey mist before the wind!—and, wilt thou
not stay, my love? Stay and behold my tears? fair thou appearest, my love! fair
thou wast, when alive!
By the mossy fountain I will sit; on the top of the hill of winds. When mid-
day is silent around, converse, O my love, with me! come on the wings of the
gale! on the blast of the mountain, come! Let me hear thy voice, as thou
passest, when mid-day is silent around.





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