| |
(Excerpt)
SPIRIT of Gentleness! what grace | |
| Attends thy footsteps! Here thy face | |
| With fine creative glory shone, | |
| Like a mild seraph’s near the throne, | |
| On that fair morn when first thy wing | 5 |
| Passed o’er the waters, brightening | |
| The solemn shores that gravely lay | |
| Far, far along the tranquil bay. | |
| |
| No lofty grandeur piled supreme, | |
| But like a sweet, prophetic dream, | 10 |
| The landscape stretched, unfolding still, | |
| In gently sloping vale and hill; | |
| Bright woods of every shade of green; | |
| And over all, the sun, serene, | |
| Rolled back the shadowy mists of gray | 15 |
| That veiled the bosom of the bay. | |
| |
| What spirit of sublime repose | |
| Was with thee when the forest rose | |
| And flung its leafy mantle o’er | |
| The changeful wild on either shore? | 20 |
| Spirits of Rest and Peace! for here | |
| They build their bowers year by year, | |
| Creating yet, from day to day, | |
| Fresh graces for their favorite bay. | |
| |
| And still the charming landscape lies | 25 |
| The fairest ’neath Canadian skies, | |
| Trembling with grace and beauty rare, | |
| Blushing to know how sweet and fair | |
| The lovely features all remain, | |
| Untouched, untainted, free from stain; | 30 |
| The matchless face as warm and gay | |
| As when first mirrored in the bay. | |
| |
| Broad, wavy grain-fields touch the shore, | |
| Receding from the dash and roar | |
| Of the hoarse billow from the deeps | 35 |
| Of the wide lake; rare woodland sweeps | |
| Of upland wild and deep ravine, | |
| In undulating swells of green; | |
| And grassy banks that shoreward stray, | |
| To toy with the delightful bay. | 40 |
| |
| Fair meadows basking in the sun, | |
| Dotted with stately herds that shun | |
| The summer heats beneath the shade | |
| Of some old remnant of the glade; | |
| Or having sought the cooling stream, | 45 |
| Defy the sun’s intensest beam, | |
| Fanned by the graceful airs that play | |
| O’er the calm surface of the bay. * * * * * | |
| |
