SOURCE: "The Style of Ossian," in Studies in Romanticism, Vol. VI, No. 1, Autumn, 1966, pp. 22-33.

In the following essay, Fitzgerald shows how Macpherson's literary style was shaped both by his exposure to Gaelic sources and the necessity of making the poetry sound like a translation.

When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Collected in the Highlands of Scotland in 1760 at Edinburgh, he presented them in a form that undoubtedly had a good deal to do with the remarkable success of the little volume. His rhythmic prose, with its simple syntax and exotic and profuse imagery, had the appeal of novelty; and this style was easily preserved in translation, thus accounting for some of the vogue of Ossian on the continent. But most important of all, the rhythmic prose gave the impression of authenticity. Hugh Blair noted in his Preface to the Fragments that "the translation is...