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��Bernard Freeman Trotter
Killed in France, May 7th, 1917, while serving at the Front as a Transport Officer. Lieutenant Trotter was born in Toronto, June 16th, 1890, son of Rev. Professor Thomas Trotter of McMaster University and Ellen M. Freeman. Educated at Horton Collegiate Academy, Wolfville, Nova Scotia; Woodstock College; and McMaster University (B.A., 1915}. A young man of high ideals and noble purposes; and a poet of great promise.
A CANADIAN TWILIGHT
Written while frail health prevented enlistment
EACE . . Peace . . the peace of dusky shores
And tremulous waters where dark shadows lie;
The stillness of low sounds . . . the ripple s urge
Along the keel, the distant thrush s call,
The drip of oars ; the calm of dew-filled air ;
The peace of afterglow ; the golden peace
Of the moon s finger laid across the flood.
Yet ah ! how few brief, fleeting moments since, That same still finger lay at Langemarck, And touched the silent dead, and wanly moved Across the murky fields and battle lines Where late my Country s bravest kept their faith.
heavenly beauty of our northern wild,
1 held it once the perfect death to die
In such a scene, in such an hour, and pass
From glory unto glory- -Time, perhaps,
May yet retrieve that vision oh ! but now
These quiet hills oppress me: I am hedged
As in that selfish Eden of the dawn
Wherein man fell to rise ; and I have sucked
The bitter fruit of knowledge, and am robbed
Of my rose-decked contentment, when I hear
Though far, the clash of arms, the shouts, the groans
A world in torment, dying to be saved.
Oh God ! the blood of Outram in these veins Cries shame upon the doom that dams it here
�� �
