Page:Songs and Sonnets (1906).djvu/47

(And O to swing away where all is new,
And share the haunts of shy and tameless things,
To dip one's paddle in the liquid blue
And skim the water lightly as with wings!)

When on the broad St. Lawrence some gray day,
Among those islands wrought of mist and dreams,
I drift to realms of unreality
Where all the world a lovely vision seems;

Or when among the Rockies I have caught
The sudden gleam of peaks above the cloud,
And on the tumult of my quickened thought
New visions, dreams and aspirations crowd;

Or, thinking of the future and of all
That generations yet unborn shall see—
The forests that for axe and ploughshare call,
The wealth of golden harvests yet to be,

I am content with Canada, and ask
No fairer land than has been given me,
No greater joy, no more inspiring task,
Than to upbuild and share her destiny.