CXCIX QUEBEC FIERCE on this bastion beats the noon-day sun; What thunders shook these silent crags of yore! What smoke of battle rolled up plain and gorge While two worlds closed in strife for one brief span! What echoes still come ringing back once more! For on these heights of old God set His forge; His strokes wrought here the destinies of man. Frederick George Scott. CC IN MEMORIAM GROWING to full manhood now, Toil and sorrow come with age, Toil our arms more strong shall render, Wild the prairie grasses wave Lay them where they fought and fell; Growing to full manhood now, Frederick George Scott. CCI A WORD FROM CANADA LEST it be said One sits at ease Westward, beyond the outer seas, That peace my latter days may find,— I give this message to the wind: Secure in thy security, Though children, not unwise are we; And filled with unplumbed love for thee,- Come down from Labrador, and where Against the pines, for thy word's sake And with thy strength made strong to dare. And though our love is strong as spring, Than the clean savour of the reeds Who follows where the wood-road leads. But unto thee are all unknown These things by which the worth is shown Of our deep love; and, near thy throne, The glory thou hast made thine own Hath made men blind To all that lies not to their hand, But what thy strength and theirs hath done: When the noon-hour and March are one For what reck they of Empire,-they, The dwellers in the wilderness Rich tribute yield to thee their friend; Yea, surely they think not at all Our slow hands rear as the years fall; The stress of time and night of doom; Therefore, in my dumb country's stead, Praying that Time's peace may be shed -One with the wheat, The mountain pine, the prairie trail, Francis Sherman. CCII CANADA TO ENGLAND SANG one of England in his island home: 'Her veins are million, but her heart is one;' And looked from out his wave-bound homeland isle To us who dwell beyond its western sun. And we among the northland plains and lakes, And feel the clasp of England's outstretched hand. When fortune's twilight to our island came. But every keel that cleaves the midway waste Binds with a silent thread our sea-cleft strands, Till ocean dwindles and the sea-waste shrinks, And England mingles with a hundred lands. And weaving silently all far-off shores A thousand singing wires stretch round the earth, Or sleep still vocal in their ocean depths, Till all lands die to make one glorious birth. So we remote compatriots reply, And feel the world-task only half begun : 'We are the girders of the ageing earth, Whose veins are million, but whose heart is one.' Arthur Stringer. CCIII THE CANADIAN VOLUNTEERS WIDE are the plains to the north and the westward; Drear are the skies to the west and the northLittle they cared, as they snatched up their rifles, And shoulder to shoulder marched gallantly forth. |