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| GRAND PRÉ! whose level meadows stretch away, | |
| Far up the deep-cut dikes thy waves roll on, | |
| Free, as a hundred years ago to-day, | |
| They climb the slopes of rocky Blomidon. | |
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| These lonely poplars, reared by sons of toil, | 5 |
| Look out like exiles o’er a foreign sea, | |
| Their haggard fronts grown gray on alien soil, | |
| Far from the province of fair Lombardy. | |
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| Long-vanished forms come thronging up the strand; | |
| I close my eyes to see the vision pass, | 10 |
| As one shuts out the daylight with his hand, | |
| To view the pictures in a magic glass. | |
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| This is the little village famed of yore, | |
| With meadows rich in flocks and plenteous grain, | |
| Whose peasants knelt beside each vine-clad door, | 15 |
| As the sweet Angelus rose o’er the plain. | |
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| High-hearted, brave, of gentle Norman blood, | |
| Their thrifty life a prospering fame did bring; | |
| They held the reins o’er peaceful field and flood, | |
| Lords of their lands, and rivals of a king. | 20 |
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| By kingly rule, an exile’s lot they bore, | |
| The poet’s song reclaims their scattered fold; | |
| Blown in melodious notes to every shore, | |
| The story of their mournful fate is told. | |
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| And to their annals linked while time shall last, | 25 |
| Two lovers from a shadowy realm are seen, | |
| A fair, immortal picture of the past, | |
| The forms of Gabriel and Evangeline. | |
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| And hither shall that sweet remembrance bring | |
| Full many a pilgrim as the years roll on, | 30 |
| While the lone bittern pauses on the wing, | |
| Above the crest of rocky Blomidon. | |
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| Still over wave and meadow smiles the day, | |
| The twilight deepens, and the time is brief, | |
| I bid farewell to beautiful Grand Pré, | 35 |
| While yet on summer’s heart bloom flower and leaf. | |
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