Next we have a series of five poems, “Sineds Träume,” in which we shall find occasional traces of Ossian’s influence, particularly in the second dream.
A typical bardic song is “Der Neugeweihte und Sined,” which contains several passages worthy of note. In the one beginning (p. 164):
... Als sich Fingals Sohn
Auf seinem leichten Nebel einst in Nacht
Zum Ohre meiner Ruhe niederliess,
Denis speaks of the reception of his Ossianic imitation. The following comparison at the end of the passage (p. 164) is Ossianic: “Und steht so fest Dem Tadel, wie den Wogen Morvens Fels.”—“Das Kunstfeuer” contains a reference (p. 207) to an episode in the songs of Ossian, viz., Fingal’s encounter with Swaran, “Cath–Loda,” Duan i:
... Ist es Uthornas Nacht
Beschwert mit Himmelszeichen, als Lodas Geist
Aus seiner Wolkenburg nach Fingal
Glühende Schrecken umsonst versandte?—
In “Der Jugendgefährte” Denis’s lament (p. 216) sounds truly Ossianic:
Jüngling! Sined ist todt. Von seiner verlassenen Halle
Tönet kein freundlicher Laut,
Leitet kein Fusstritt in Schatten. Ihm haben die Söhne der Lieder
Traurig sein Grabmaal erhöht.
Ossianic touches also occur in the poems that have been added to the fifth volume. In the “Fünfte Reise” Denis speaks of bad advice disappearing “gleich dem Nebel” (p. 89); Ossian has frequent comparisons to the departure of mist. The first line (p. 91) of the “Sechste Reise” is typical: “Das Grau der Vorzeit hellt sich dem Barden auf.” “Der Zwist der Fürsten,” a series of three poems, contains several things of interest. In the first song we have Ossian’s striking on the shield as a sign of battle (p. 111). In the second Joseph’s shield is said to be “gleich dem Monde Mitten in Gewittern” (p. 113). Compare “Temora,” Bk. i, p. 306, ll. 4–5: “His shield is ... like the ... moon ascending through a storm,” and numerous other comparisons of a shield to the moon.—The lines (p. 117):
Die schauernde Gegend erglänzte
Von Waffen, wie feurige Flut.
recall “Fingal,” Bk. iv, ll. 2–3: “The heath flamed wide with their arms.” Ossianic in “Wiens Befreyung” (p. 124) is “Die Wolke des Tods,” “the cloud of death.”[273]—The line (p. 132): “Dein Rath ist Licht, und Flamme dein Muth,” reminds us of “Fingal,” Bk. ii, p. 228, l. 12: “Thy counsel is the sun,” and “Temora,” Bk. iv, p. 338, l. 23: “Valour, like a ... flame.”—Ossian calls the dew the “drops of heaven,”[274] and so Denis in “Der Blumenstrauss” (p. 157) “des Himmels Tropfen.”