Memories of Canada and Scotland, Speeches and Verses | Page 7

is green and lone,?For the hosts of the settler have ringed me round,?And his bride am I with the harvest crowned."
On her steed at speed o'er her burning grass?We saw Assiniboia pass:?"The bison and antelope still are mine,?And the Indian wars on my boundary-line;?Where his knife is dyed I love to ride?By the cactus blooms or the marshes wide,?While the quivering columns of thunder fire?Give light to the darkened land's desire."
"To the North look ye forth," cried the voice of one,?Who dwells where the great twin rivers run;--?"Or farther yet," Athabaska cried,?"Where mightier waters the hills divide:?'Peace' is their name, and the musk ox there?Still feeds alone on the meadows fair."?"Nay, stay," said the first; "the white man's word?Hath called me the kindest to horse and herd."
From on high where the sky and the snow-born rill?Each morn and eve to the rose-tints thrill,?Sang the fairy Sprite of the Fountain Land:?"A daughter of her, whose sceptred hand?With the flag of the woven crosses three?Hath rule o'er the ocean, hath christened me,?And my waves their homage repeat again,?And that standard greet in the loyal main."
And their lays in her praise then sang the four:?"Alberta has all we can boast and more:?The scented breath of the plains is hers,?The odours sweet of the sage and firs;?There the coal breaks forth on her rolling sod,?And the winters flee at the winds of God.?Columbia, come! for we want but thee;?Now tell of thyself and thy silent sea!"
"Clad with the silver snow, a pine?Guarded the grot of a golden mine,?And dark was the shade which the mist-wreaths cast?Though brightly they shone on the mountain vast.
Stars and sun o'er that cavern swept,?Where on the glittering sand I slept;?But none could behold me, or know where was stored?More treasure than monarch e'er won with the sword.
Floods in fathomless torrents fall?Through the awful rifts of the Alpine wall,?Where I passed in the night over forest and glen,?O'er the ships on the sea and the cities of men--
Swifter than morn! His shafts of love?Behind me caught the peaks above,?But touched not my wings: I had gone e'er he came?Where the vine-maple fringed the deep forest with flame.
Strewn o'er the sombre walls of green?In saffron or in crimson sheen,?How lovely those gardens of autumn, where rolled?In smoke and in fire the red lava of old!
Soon I reached my sea-girt home?Sheltered from the breakers' foam.?Seek not for mine isle, for a thousand and more?Lie asleep in the calm near the mountainous shore.
Oft I roam in moon ray clear?With the puma and the deer;?From the boughs of Madr?na that droop o'er a bay?I watch the fish dart from the beams of the day.
Mine are tranquil gulfs, nor give?Sign to lovers where I live;?But the sea-rock betrays where my netting is hung,?When the meshes of light o'er its mosses are flung!"
She ceased, and then in chorus strong?The blended voices floated long:--
"No sirens we, of shore or wave,?To sing of love and tempt the brave:?We fled their path, and freedom found?Where blue horizons stretched around,?And lilies in the grasses made?A double sunshine on each blade.?No wooers we, but, wooed by them,?We yield our maiden diadem,?And welcome now, no longer mute,?Tried hearts so true and resolute!"
THE PRAIRIE ROSES.
The Noon-Sun prayed a prairie rose?To blanch for him her blossom's hue,?But to the Plain all love she owes;?Beneath that mother's grass she grew.
And sheltered by her verdant blades,?Their tints of green she made her own;?But still the Sun sought out her shades?And said, "Be my white bride alone!"
Then, sorrowing for his grievous pain,?Her sister loved the amorous god,?And blushed, ashamed, as o'er the plain?His parting beams illumed the sod.
So one sweet rose yet wears the green,?And one in sunset's crimson glows;?Still one untouched by love is seen,?And one in conscious beauty blows.
CREE FAIRIES.
"Did earth ever see?On thy prairie's line?Tribes older than thine,?Old Chief of the Cree?"
"Before us we know?Of none who lived here;?Our shafts bade them go.
"But others have share?Of lake and of land,?A swift-footed band?No arrow can scare.
"Their coming has been?When flowers are gay;?On islet and bay?Their footprints are seen.
"There dance little feet?Light grasses they break;?Beneath the blue lake?Must be their retreat.
"We listen, and none?Hears ever a sound;?But where, lily-crowned,?Floats the isle in the sun,
"Three children we see?Like sunbeams at play.?And, voiceless as they,?Dogs bounding in glee.
"Of old they were there!?Ever young, who are these?Whom Death cannot seize??What Spirits of air?"
THE "QU'APPELLE" VALLEY.
Morning, lighting all the prairies,?Once of old came, bright as now,?To the twin cliffs, sloping wooded?From the vast plain's even brow:?When the sunken valley's levels?With the winding willowed stream,?Cried, "Depart, night's mists and shadows;?Open-flowered, we love to dream!"?Then in his canoe a stranger?Passing onward heard a cry;?Thought it called his name and answered,?But the voice would not reply;?Waited listening, while the glory?Rose to search each steep ravine,?Till the shadowed terraced ridges?Like the level vale were