Und meine Freude . . . . . .
War, wie des Mondes Antlitz, wenn ein Dunst
Sich von der Erde schwingend es beschleicht.[260]
The ghost tells Denis that Rhingulph (p. 209):
... nannte dich den Freund an Ossians Busen,
Dem Ossian am Abend seiner Augen
Die Harfe liess.—
In a note to “Sineds Gesicht,” Denis quotes Kretschmann’s reply, in which the latter addresses him as “Sined, treuster Freund von Fingals Sohne!” and exclaims: “Hätt’ ich Ullins Lieder, böth ich dir sie an.”[261]—The succeeding poem, “An einen Jüngling,” enjoins a youth to conduct himself so that his fame may go down in the songs of the bards, that darkness may not dwell around his grave, that his name may not die like the thunder echoed by the hills, and gives him much similar advice such as Ossian was accustomed to extend to his Celtic heroes.
“Sineds Vaterlandslieder,” a series of four poems, contain the never–failing Ossianic paraphernalia as before. The bard sings in a grove, reclining upon moss in the shade of an oak, with the breeze trembling through the leaves and sighing in the harp.[262] In the opening line of the next poem, “Sineds Morgenlied,” the poet calls upon the harp to descend (p. 232): “Harfe! steig nieder.” Compare “Urlaub von der sichtbaren Welt” (p. 283):
Steig nieder, Schattenharfe!
Vom wiegenden Zweige der Tanne!
The ‘Schattenharfe’[263] is Ossian’s ‘shadowy harp,’ “Temora,” Bk. vii, p. 361, l. 4, and in “Temora,” Bk. v, p. 340, l. 2, we read: “Descend from thy place, O harp.” The harp may hang on a branch, as in “Berrathon,” p. 380, l. 31.[264]—“Das Donnerwetter” contains occasional Ossianic nature touches. This poem is followed by six laments, “Sineds Klagen,” in which the grief now and again takes an Ossianic tone, as witness the opening verses of the first, an elegy on Gellert’s death (p. 253):
Schauerndes Lüftchen! woher?
Trüb ist der Tag. In dem entblätterten Hayne
. . . . . . . .
... sitz’ ich einsam
Auf mein Saitenspiel gelehnet,
Da kömmst du, Lüftchen! schwirrest mir
So kläglich, so kläglich die Saiten hindurch.[265]
Ossianic also is the tone of the opening lines of the second complaint, sung on a cloudy autumn day (p. 258):
Traurig ist der Tag!
Von der Himmelstochter
Blicken ungetröstet
Dämmert er dahin.
Graue Nebelsäulen
Steigen von Gebirgen.