Happy Canada Day!
From verdant sweep and fresh sea deep
And Rocky mountain grandeur
From rolling plain of rippling grain
To babbling brook meander
Lord, keep this land within Thy hand
And we, who troll its river
From shore to shore, let us adore
Oh Canada, Thy Giver
From solitude of winter’s wood
To spring’s green welcome wending
To summer’s flower bowers filled
And autumn-orchards bending
Lord, keep this land within Thy hand
And we who till its acre
Let us adore from shore to shore
This bit of loam that we call home
Of wild-life, still-life forest
Of maple tree and liberty
City and country glorious
Lord, hear our prayer and lend Thy care
To we, of sundry weather
From shore to shore and door to door
Bless Canada forever
Lord, let us guard with loyal heart
And love, one for another
This true north strong and free, that we
May all be sister-brother
Lord, bless and keep us kind and true
And in your Mercy grounded
And not forsake the faith whereon
© Janet Martin
* Cartier resolved to take formal possession of the
country, and to indicate, in a conspicuous manner, that he did so in
the name of the King, his master, and in the interests of religion.
With these objects in view, on Friday, July 24th, a huge wooden
cross, thirty feet in height, was constructed, and was raised with
much ceremony, in sight of many of the Indians, close to the
entrance of the harbor; three fleurs-de-lys being carved under the
cross, and an inscription, "Vive le Roy de France." The French
formed a circle on their knees around it, and made signs to attract
the attention of the savages, pointing up to the heavens, "as if to
show that by the cross came their redemption."
JACQUES CARTIER.
By
Thomas D’Arcy McGee
|
|
I.
|
|
In the sea-port of Saint Malo ’twas a smiling morn in May
When the Commodore Jacques Cartier to the westward sailed away;
In the crowded old Cathedral all the town were on their knees
For the safe return of kinsmen from the undiscover’d seas;
And every autumn blast that swept o’er pinnacle and pier |
|
| Filled manly hearts with sorrow and gentle hearts with fear. |
|
II.
|
|
A year passed o’er Saint Malo—again came round the day
When the Commodore Jacques Cartier to the westward sailed away;
But no tidings from the absent had come the way they went,
And tearful were the vigils that many a maiden spent; |
|
And manly hearts were filled with gloom and gentle hearts with fear
When no tidings came from Cartier at the closing of the year. |
|
III.
|
|
But the Earth is as the Future, it hath its hidden side,
And the Captain of Saint Malo was rejoicing in his pride
In the forests of the north—while his townsmen mourned his loss |
|
He was rearing on Mount-Royal the fleur-de-lis and cross;
And when two months were over and added to the year,
Saint Malo hailed him home again, cheer answering to cheer. |
|
IV.
|
|
He told them of a region, hard, iron-bound and cold,
Nor seas of pearl abounded, nor mines of shining gold, |
|
Where the wind from Thulé freezes the word upon the lip,
And the ice in spring comes sailing athwart the early ship;
He told them of the frozen scene until they thrill’d with fear,
And piled fresh fuel on the hearth to make him better cheer. |
|
V.
|
|
But when he chang’d the strain—he told how soon is cast |
|
In early Spring the fetters that hold the waters fast;
How the Winter causeway broken is drifted out to sea,
And the rills and rivers sing with pride the anthem of the free;
How the magic wand of Summer clad the landscape to his eyes,
Like the dry bones of the just, when they wake in Paradise.
|
|
VI.
|
|
He told them of the Algonquin braves—the hunters of the wild,
Of how the Indian mother in the forest rocks her child;
Of how, poor souls, they fancy in every living thing
A spirit good or evil, that claims their worshipping;
Of how they brought their sick and maim’d for him to breathe |
|
| upon, |
|
And
of the wonders wrought for them thro’ the
Gospel of St.
John.
|
|
VII. |
|
He told them of the river whose might current gave
Its freshness for a hundred leagues to ocean’s briny wave;
He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight,
What time he reared the cross and crown on Hochelaga’s height, |
|
And of the fortress cliff that keeps of Canada the key,
And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from
his perils over sea. |
