And in the same song we have the “Geist der Lieder” (p. 56)[283] as well as a typical Ossianic ghost (p. 55). In the second canto we read (p. 62):
Frisch wie der Eichenbaum,
Wächst Teutschlands Jugend auf.
Compare “Carric–Thura,” p. 152, l. 20: “Thy family grew like an oak.”—In this song we have two Ossianic pictures, the one (p. 64):
Auf einmal tritt ....
Die Sonn’ empor, und vorger Nacht
Lezte graue Nebel fliehen.
And the other (p. 72):
... in den Lüften flog der Sturm,
Und Sausen war im alten Haine.
The echo makes its appearance in the second canto (p. 72): “Und Fels und Wald erklang,” in the third (p. 79), the fourth (p. 107), and elsewhere.[284] I do not wish to imply that the author thought of Ossian each time he employed the echo, but there can be no doubt of the fact that Ossian is in large measure responsible for the fondness which the bardic poets had for the echo.[285] “Die mosigte Höle” (p. 72) goes back to Ossian’s mossy cave.[286] In the fourth canto we come to the battle proper and here Ossianic imagery is not lacking, e. g., the lines (p. 96):
Dort, wo der kühnsten Krieger Mengen
Sich wie Gewitterwolken drängen?—
Dort wird der Führer Varus stehn!
suggest Ossian’s “Their heroes follow, like the gathering of the rainy clouds;”[287] “Like the clouds, that gather to a tempest ...! so met the sons of the desert round ... Fingal;”[288] etc. Further along we have (p. 97): “Sein Schwert ... strahlt wie Blitz.”[289] When we read of warriors being hewn down like thistles by the mower (p. 100), we are reminded of the passage in “Fingal,” Bk. ii, p. 231, ll. 12–3: “Cuthullin cut off heroes like thistles.”—The fifth song opens with a comparison in the Ossianic vein (p. 111):
Wie wenn der lezte Wintersturm
Noch eine Nacht mit Sausen,
Mit Schnee und Hagel, fürchterlich
Durchwütete; dann schnell entwich,
Auf fernem Gebürge zu brausen:
Der erste göldne Frühlingstag,
Der lauschend hinter Wolken lag,
Steigt freundlich nun hernieder;