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Much of the tragic gloom, of which “Ossian” is a true mirror, colours even contemporary Scoto-Celtic poetry; and though in Gaelic there is much humorous verse, and much poetry of a blithe, bright, and even joyous nature, the dominant characteristic is that of gloom, the gloom of unavailing regret, of mournful longing, a lament for what cannot be again. True, in a Gaelic poem by Mary Mackellar, a contemporary Highland poet, we hear of

Spioraid aosmhoir tìr nan Gàidheal,

Ciod an diugh a’s fàth do ’n ghàirich

’Dhùisg thu comhdaichte le aighear,

As an uaigh ’s an robh thu’d ’chadal?

(Spirit of the Gaelic earth

Wherefore is this mirth unwonted

That hath waked thee from the tomb,

And to triumph turned thy gloom?)—

but, alas! that fine line, “Spioraid aosmhoir tìr nan Gàidheal” is not an invocation to the Gaelic muse to arouse herself to a new and blither music, but is simply part of some congratulatory lines of a “Welcome to the Marquis of Lorne on his union with the Princess Louise”![2]