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The curtain of night descended on the hills. 

 And heroes were feasting in Selma. 



There was song after song, as the custom was. 

 There was that and the music of harps. 

 With the barking of dogs in the interval of action. 

 From the rock which rises over the white beach." 



The white beach in the last Hne 



.i'il' 



" Answers exactly the present aspect of the white sand which covers the shore around 

 part of the hill on which Selma stood. The rock from which the dogs were heard to bark is 

 here also, for that part of the hill washed by the waves, is composed of rock, and rises almost 

 perpendicular to the sea. But if this be not the rock alluded to in the poem, there is another 

 rock within a few hundred yards of Selma, to which the description is equally applicable." 



And to what is the modern theatrical image of the curtain of 

 night descending, applicable ? By what proleptic vision did the old 

 blind bard discover that idea ? Was he enabled in the fury of pro- 

 phetic inspiration to peep through Shakespeare's " blanket of the 

 dark," and anticipate the moderns in the use even of their own pro- 

 perty ? The rock and the sandy beach in regions abounding with 

 islands and gulfs, are no doubt very characteristic ! The description 

 would apply to the hill of Howth, or to Ireland's Eye, and the fine 

 shelly strand of Portmarnock ; or if these be not the scenes alluded 

 to, there is another rock at Cairnalloch, or Red-bay, or Portrush, or 

 Magilligan ! 



The learned topographer having thus distinctly pointed out the 

 rock and the sandy beach, leads us to the ruins of the royal palace : 



" In Selma, or Taura, or Temora, 

 There is no shell, nor song, nor harp ! 

 They are all become green mounds. 

 And their stones half sunk in their own meadows." 



