Читать книгу Canadian Battlefields, and Other Poems - J. R. Wilkinson - Страница 24
CANADIAN HOMES.
ОглавлениеCanadian homes! Canadian homes!
Ye dot this wide Dominion o’er,
From the Atlantic’s ebb and flow
To the far, far Pacific’s shore!
Nestling by a thousand streams,
Crowning a thousand lofty hills,
A thousand valleys own thy sway,
The patriot e’er with rapture thrills.
A hundred rivers wend their way
By fertile plains toward the sea,
Bearing rich products of the soil
In undisturbed security;
And the great chain of inland seas,
Teeming with commerce and with trade—
The land is proud of her true sons,
And the real progress they have made.
Thy mountains tower to the skies,
And free, wild winds roam o’er thy plains;
And he who seeks this great, broad land
His freedom and a good home gains.
Thy mountain sides and wide foothills
Yield up rich ores of every name;
Exhaustless is thy hidden store,
Millions of wealth the seekers gain.
The matchless fisheries on our coasts,
Our seas and rivers, lakes and streams,
Assure to all a rich reward—
They so plenteously do teem.
Our railroads span the continent,
A vast expanse from shore to shore;
From north to south, from east to west,
They stretch this grand Dominion o’er.
A system of canals have we
Unequalled—search the world so wide—
Connecting all our waterways
By lake and stream to ocean’s side.
They come and go, the white-winged ships,
Bearing rich burdens to and fro;
We have enough, aye and to spare;
Our hearts with gratitude do glow.
Our kine are on a thousand hills;
Our wheat and corn lands, rich and rare,
Yield golden grain abundantly;
With the whole world do we compare.
The luscious grape here is produced,
The vines are purple with its glow;
The apple, peach, and pear, and plum,
In plenty and perfection grow.
Invigorating our atmosphere—
With skies of the intensest blue—
Producing an indomitable race,
With brave, true hearts to dare and do.
Here woman is as beautiful
As e’er this great wide world hath seen,
And in her dear Canadian home
She reigns an honored queen.
Our famous schools dot o’er the land,
Free as the winds that roam our plains,
And ignorance doth flee away;
Happily, intelligence reigns.
Noble colleges and institutes
Throughout this goodly land abound;
Within the easy reach of all
Is education to be found.
Thus blest, the Canadian lifts his head,
And all things dares in manly pride,
For man to man, the wide world o’er,
He’s equal, proved and tried.
Remember it, doubting cynic,
History proves his sterling worth,
And in arms he is co-equal
With the bravest ones of earth.
And in the world’s wide, busy marts,
In science, trade, and cultured art,
In the front rank he e’er is found,
Bearing no menial second part.
Contending with the bravest there,
He holds the fierce, disputed way—
Persistence and efficiency
Are sure to win the sternest day.
Religious tolerance have we,
A people chaste by Christian love;
Thousands of church-spires point the way
To the celestial courts above.
Thus blest, we dwell in freedom’s light,
Defenders of our country’s cause,
Loving our dear Canadian homes,
Respecting and keeping her laws.
These free and fair Canadian homes
Acadia’s vales do beautify;
Her cities gleam like diadems,
Her towers mount upward to the sky.
And where New Brunswick lifts her head
In vigorous, friendly rivalry,
They shine like jewels in a crown,
An anchor to our unity.
Prince Edward’s Island by the sea
Is safely, sternly girded round,
Taught by all nature to be free;
Influenced by her voice profound
They build, secure in freedom’s light,
A fabric safe, enduring, grand,
Proud of their dear island home,
And of this fair Dominion land.
Our provinces beside the sea
Send out their ships to every land;
Alert to every enterprise,
The world’s esteem they do command.
Aye, they are known on every sea;
In every clime, and isle remote,
The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear,
Protectingly o’er them doth float.
Quebec! Quebec! thou dowered queen
Of beauty! for thee nature smiles;
A vista wide of hill and vale,
A river with a thousand isles,
Above whose calm, majestic breast
Frowns an impregnable citadel,
A safeguard to our entrance-gate,
Where Wolfe and Montcalm fearless fell.
Historic and heroic days
Those stern defiant cliffs have known,
The thunder of the battle strife,
Wild cheer, defeat, and dying moan.
Beautiful and historic stream,
Flow on, flow on, toward the sea—
The outlet to our wide domain—
Flow on in calm tranquillity!
Heroes of old ascended thee,
Brave men that would not be denied;
They pierced the wilds beyond the flood,
And death and danger they defied.
From Saguenay to Ottawa,
Across the blue Laurentian hills,
Are homes of the French habitant, And love for thee his warm heart thrills.
With habits all so queer and quaint,
Their social life we plainly trace;
E’er faithful to their usages,
A happy and contented race.
And they have stood by Britain’s side
When war was rife on every hand—
De Salaberry at Chateauguay
Dealt a good blow for this fair land.
Ontario speaketh to our heart—
More blest, and more diversified
Are the rich blessings of her soil—
We greet her e’er with love and pride.
Numerous cities dot her o’er,
Hamlets and town by hundreds rise,
A vigorous and enduring growth,
Throbbing with trade and enterprise.
Pastoral scenes so fair and sweet
Meet the glad, enraptured gaze;
By verdured hill and lovely vale,
And a thousand broad highways,
By lake and stream and riverside,
The children’s laugh and mothers’ song
Float out along the summer air,—
A busy, bright, and happy throng.
O happy homes and loving hearts,
By rural scenes, or city’s ways!
Pinched not by poverty and wrong,
Blest in the fulness of your days!
The busy days pass swiftly by,
The evening brings good cheer along;
Canadian homes are bright and gay,
And purified by love and song.
Manitoba bursts on our view,
The prairies stretching far away,
Where thousands make their happy homes,
Blessing the auspicious day
They sought and found this “great lone land.”
And still they come from every shore,
Seeking out free Canadian homes,—
And there is room for millions more.
Here towns are rising everywhere,
A vigorous growth on every hand;
Industry’s ceaseless, cheerful din
Is heard throughout this goodly land.
Then, Manitobans, thrice three cheers
Ring out! ring out, in swelling tones,
A shout for this Dominion wide,
And for these new Canadian homes!
The prairie province opes the way
To these far vast and fertile plains;
The wheatlands of the world lie here—
This Canada to all proclaims.
And on and on we wend our way,
O’er areas vast our steps are drawn;
We flit by hill and lake and stream,
Beyond the great Saskatchewan.
We gain Alberta’s grazing lands,
Lovely with vales and streams and hills—
And countless kine are herded here.
Stretching away to the foothills
Are undulations, emerald sweeps
Of sunny plains in beauty drest,
With mountains towering to view—
This is Canada’s “great wild west.”
We pierce the Rockies in our flight;
The steely way is swift and sure,
Our land’s necessity and pride,
Long as our union shall endure.
But on and on we safely glide,
By mountains vast and stern and hoary;
Our pen but faintly can portray
The scenes of panoramic glory.
Here lovely valleys meet the eye,
All rife with summer’s winsome gladness;
The summits of those gray cold peaks
Are wrapt in winter’s sternest sadness,
Defying the elements’ rage
Through mystic and untold ages.
God’s hand hath builded them in might
To commemorate His pages.
Below is verdant leaf and flower,
Flora and fauna everywhere;
The peaks are wrapt in perpetual snow
And lit by the sun’s fierce glare.
Below is the sigh of soft winds
And the ripple of cooling streams;
Aloft is the bitterest air,
Where the frost eternally gleams.
The sides of the mountains ever
Are great waves of emerald green;
While the streams, from summits falling
White as snow, are foaming between;
The cedar and pine trees ever
Tossing aloft their fronded plumes,
Where the winds forever whisper
Nature’s subtle and mournful runes.
And through and beyond the Selkirks,
Down the Fraser we calmly glide—
All hail, fair British Columbia,
Thou rich gem by the ocean’s side!
Lovely land of mountain and stream,
We greet thee with bosom aflame;
A crown of laurel awaits thee,
We sing of thy greatness and fame.
The fleets of the world come to thee;
Thy cities are growing apace;
Thou art vigorously gaining,
And everywhere we may trace
Prosperity and refinement
In those far west Canadian homes;
The field and the mine contribute,
And we hail thee in heartiest tones.
Out o’er a measure of ocean,
Of ripple and bright sunny smile,
The sea accords us a welcome
To Vancouver’s fair sea-girt isle—
Last link in the chain of our union,
A bright gem in the Western sea,
Imbued with loyal devotion,
Prosperous and happy and free.
We breathe the ozone of ocean,
Where our mammoth ships sail away
To the land of the Celestials,
And the Japs, at the break of day.
And southward unto Australia,
And the distant isles of the sea,
Our commerce is fast extending,
Reaching out vigorously.
Northward, by Behring and Polar seas,
E’er fearlessly our good ships go,
Undeterred by storms of the deep,
Or perpetual frost and snow;
Seeking and finding seal and whale,
Faithful hearts that know no fear,
Venturing all in the enterprise
For their home and loved ones dear.
Returning by our “golden north,”
Penetrating the Arctic zone,
Bordering on the frozen deep,
All so desolate and so lone;
Flitting by Great Slave and Bear Lakes,
“The fur country,” winning our way
By Rupert’s Land, lonesome and strange,
Leading downward by Hudson Bay.
Gaining the stormy Atlantic,
And wafted, by headland and shore,
Past the homes of our brave fishers
On e’er desolate Labrador,
Thus we have circled the Dominion,
A vast and wonderful domain;
Exhaustless in her resources,
The world shall yet ring with her fame.
Then up in your might, Canadians!
No matter what your creed may be,
And stand for country and the right,
E’er steadfast in our unity.
The half a continent is ours,
Then let our hearts be all aflame;
The field ’s sufficient for us all,
Where all may win both wealth and fame.
We love this fair Canadian land,
O’erstrewn with mountain, plain and lake;
And we would even dare to die
For our dear homes and country’s sake.
Remember it? Aye, remember—
They burn within our thoughts to-day—
Queenston Heights, famed Lundy’s Lane,
Stony Creek, Quebec, Chateauguay.
There, side by side with the regulars,
Our fathers faced the invading foe,
And swept them from our sacred shores
By stern-delivered blow on blow.
And should they dare to come again
Where the old flag in freedom waves,
We’ll meet them firm, unyielding still,
And strew these peaceful shores with graves.
Hurrah! hurrah for Canada!
For the land that is great and free;
“The flag that’s braved a thousand years,”
Ever that grand old flag for me.
Touch not its daring crimson folds—
It bears no cringing coward stain;
No traitor hand shall pull it down,
Nor mar its glorious fame.
It floats to-day o’er every sea;
In every clime, in every zone,
That daring flag defiantly
Is to the free wild winds out-thrown.
The sun may rise and set again,
But not on Britain’s grand domain—
The Empire dots the wide world o’er,
And Britain’s heart is all aflame.
Hurrah! hurrah for Canada!
And the Empire that rules the sea!
In union with the Motherland
We are ever safe and free.
Thus, moving on from year to year,
All time shall sing our brave story—
A united empire rolling on
To an immortal glory.
