Читать книгу Canadian Battlefields, and Other Poems - J. R. Wilkinson - Страница 14

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Along the shores of Point Pelee,

Three hundred years ago,

The summer sun in rapture shone,

And pure winds soft did blow.

The laughing waters rose and fell

In soft caressing lave;

And flashing sea-birds dipt their wings,

And white gulls skimmed the wave.

The mallard ducks in thousands flew

Along the rippling tide,

And eagles soared in heaven’s blue

In freedom far and wide;

And gay kingfishers watched the surf,

And divers cleaved the deep.

Across the waters far away

Stole murmurs strange and sweet.

The finny tribes in schools did glide

Along the sandy bars;

The splendor of their jewelled sides

Flashed up like silver stars.

The sturgeon floundered in their glee,

Mud pouts and cats at play—

A subtle gladness brooded there

Throughout the fair sweet day.

The warm south winds stole o’er the lake

Along the shifting bars;

The bright waves met in dashing foam,

Flashing like crystal stars.

And skies serene, divinely blue,

Met the enraptured gaze;

On the horizon far away

Hung a delicious haze.

Ashore! ashore! let’s leap ashore,

And glide ’neath cedar shade,

Where pine trees raise their fronded crests

O’er many a sylvan glade;

Where juniper in clusters grow,

And twining vines wreathe o’er

The nooks and winding velvet ways

That reach from shore to shore.

The walnut and the oak tree, too,

Their sturdy forms uprear;

The haunts of squirrel and raccoon,

Wild-cat and savage bear,

And mink and otter haunt these shades.

Their wants are all supplied;

Sleek creatures, how they frisk and play

In all their graceful pride!

Oft, too, is heard the howl of wolf,

When night-time closes down;

The sylvan glades, lost in the shades,

With their fierce cries resound.

The bounding deer and graceful fawn

Here, too, have made their home;

Untamed, unfettered, and all free,

These lovely haunts they roam.

Hark to that wave of melody,

That here so sweetly thrills;

It flows from all the nooks and glens,

And from the sunlit hills!

O wrens, and redbirds fair and sweet,

Jays, robins, join the song,

And bluebirds with the azure wing,

A blithe and happy throng!

The whippoorwill, and catbird, too,

Whose song steals on the night,

The chatter of the festive owl

That shouts in weird delight!

A thousand voices join the lay,

And rhythmic fluttering wings

Of every hue play interlude

To the hymn that nature sings.

See, the flowers of every hue—

Wild roses like a dream—

Breathe out their incense on the air,

Odorous and serene!

The lily and the violet sweet

Peep up on every side,

And buttercups and wild bluebells

In all their native pride.