Arts & Sciences
Ossian
From The Poems of Madison Cawein (1907)
Long have I heard the noise of battle clash
Along the windy sea that roared again;
Seen helmets rise, and on the clanking plain
Barbaric chieftains meet and, howling, dash
Their mailéd thousands down, with crash on crash,
Like crags contending with the roaring main;
Torrents of shields, like rivers of rolling rain,
I have beheld within the moon’s pale flash;
The moon, that, like a spirit, o’er the wood
Hung white as steel, glimmering the spears and swords,
That shone like ripples in the iron flood,
The streams of war, that beat in heathen hordes
About their rock-like kings, whence wave-like far,
Circled the battle, warrior on warrior.
Cite this poem
MLA
Cawein, Madison. “Ossian.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cawein/740/.
Chicago
Cawein, Madison. “Ossian.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cawein/740/.
Read this poem with the Codex →