Part 2

Miscellanies.

Cantata

The Hail-storm. From the Norse

The Elder-witch

Ode. From the Gaelic

Bear song. From the Danish of Evald

National song. From the Danish of Evald

The Old Oak

Lines to Six-foot Three

Nature's Temperaments. From the Danish of Oehlenslaeger

The Violet-gatherer. From the Danish of Oehlenslaeger

Ode to a Mountain-torrent. From the German of Stolberg

Runic Verses

Thoughts on Death. From the Swedish of C. Lohman

Birds of Passage. From the Swedish

The Broken Harp

Scenes

The Suicide's Grave. From the German

The Original Title Page. 200 copies by subscription

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The London (John Taylor) Title Page. 300 copies including those bearing the imprint of Wightman & Cramp.

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PREFACE

The ballads in this volume are translated from the Works of OEHLENSLAEGER, (a poet who is yet living, and who stands high in the estimation of his countrymen,) and from the KIAEMPE VISER, a collection of old songs, celebrating the actions of the ancient heroes of Scandinavia.

The old Danish poets were, for the most part, extremely rude in their versification. Their stanzas of four or two lines have not the full rhyme of vowel and consonant, but merely what the Spaniards call the "assonante," or vowel rhyme, and attention seldom seems to have been paid to the number of feet on which the lines moved along. But, however defective their poetry may be in point of harmony of numbers, it describes, in vivid and barbaric language, scenes of barbaric grandeur, which in these days are never witnessed; and, which, though the modern muse may imagine, she generally fails in attempting to pourtray, from the violent desire to be smooth and tuneful, forgetting that smoothness and tunefulness are nearly synonymous with tameness and unmeaningness.

I expect shortly to lay before the public a complete translation of the KIAEMPE VISER, made by me some years ago; and of which, I hope, the specimens here produced will not give an unfavourable idea.

It was originally my intention to publish, among the "Miscellaneous Pieces," several translations from the Gaelic, formerly the language of the western world; the noble tongue

"A labhair Padric' nninse Fail na Riogh. 'San faighe caomhsin Colum naomhta' n I."