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(Excerpt)
LONG ago a band of travellers | |
| Left behind the coast of Spain, | |
| Turned their faces to the westward, | |
| Sailed across the storm-tossed main, | |
| Crossed the black Atlantic waters, | 5 |
| Landed on a rock-bound shore, | |
| Moored their argosies and left them, | |
| That the land they might explore. | |
| Sadly turned they homeward, murmuring, | |
| “Aca Nada!” nothing here. | 10 |
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| Nothing here! my Canada? | |
| Nay, but we have wiser grown; | |
| Stretching vast from dawn to sunset, | |
| With a grandeur all thine own! | |
| Rugged mountains, where the eagle | 15 |
| Wheels in widening circles slow; | |
| Mighty hills whose peakèd summits, | |
| Covered with eternal snow, | |
| Stand like angel sentinels guarding | |
| Far and wide the land below! | 20 |
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| Trackless forests, dark and lonely, | |
| Where man’s foot hath never trod; | |
| Howls the wolf, and screams the panther, | |
| Face to face with Nature’s God! | |
| Here the haughty stag, advancing, | 25 |
| Kingly power undaunted sways; | |
| Here the timid hare bounds fearless | |
| Through the brushwood underways; | |
| In his native marsh the heron | |
| Seeks the waters of his love, | 30 |
| While in geometric figure | |
| Sails the wild duck far above. | |
| Company of man disturbs not, | |
| All in careless freedom rove! | |
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| Lakes and streamlets ever changing, | 35 |
| Yet in beauty changeless still | |
| As when Chaos and Old Night | |
| Bent obedient to His will! | |
| Stately rivers, onward rolling | |
| Ever to the restless sea, | 40 |
| On their azure bosoms heaving, | |
| White-winged barques ride daintily, | |
| Laden low with grain so golden, | |
| Ceres laughs in happy glee. | |
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| Where of yore, by tideless waters, | 45 |
| Pines their solemn shadows threw, | |
| Curls the graceful smoke from homesteads, | |
| Men their thrifty lives pursue. | |
| Where in bygone years the forest | |
| Shuddered with the tempest’s roar, | 50 |
| Spreads now many a stately city; | |
| Solitude returns no more! | |
| Happy country! happy people! | |
| Peace prevails from shore to shore. * * * * * | |
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