In this still place, remote from men, Sleeps Ossian, in the NARROW GLEN; In this still place, where murmurs on But one meek streamlet, only one:
He sang of battles, and the breath Of stormy war, and violent death; And should, methinks, when all was past, Have rightfully been laid at last
Where rocks were rudely heaped, and rent As by a spirit turbulent; Where sights were rough, and sounds were wild, And everything unreconciled;
In some complaining, dim retreat, For fear and melancholy meet; But this is calm; there cannot be A more entire tranquillity.
Does then the Bard sleep here indeed? Or is it but a groundless creed? What matters it?— I blame them not Whose Fancy in this lonely Spot
Was moved; and in suchway expressed Their notion of its perfect rest. A convent, even a hermit's cell, Would break the silence of this Dell:
It is not quiet, is not ease; But something deeper far than these: The separation that is here Is of the grave; and of austere
Yethappy feelings of the dead: And, therefore, was it rightly said That Ossian, last of all his race! Lies buried in this lonely place.
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