In the far green depths of the forest glade,Where the hunter’s footsteps but rarely strayed,Was a darksome dell, possessed, ’twas said,By an evil spirit, dark and dread,Whose weird voice spoke in the whisperings lowOf that haunted wood, and the torrent’s flow. There an Indian girl sat silent, lone,From her lips came no plaint or stifled […]

“Child of the Woods, bred in leafy dell,See the palace home in which I dwell,With its lofty walls and casements wide,And objects of beauty on every side;Now, tell me, dost thou not think it blissTo dwell in a home as bright as this?” “Has my pale-faced sister never seenMy home in the pleasant forest green,With […]

He stood on the wood-crowned summitOf our mountain’s regal height,And gazed on the scene before him,By October’s golden light,And his dark eyes, earnest, thoughtful,Lit up with a softer rayAs they dwelt on the scene of beautyThat, outspread, before him lay. Like a sea of liquid silver,St. Lawrence, ‘neath the sun,Reflected the forest foliageAnd the Indian […]

On proud Mount Royal’s Eastern side,In view of St. Lawrence’s silver tide,Are two stone towers of masonry rude,With massive doors of time-darken’d wood:Traces of loop-holes are in the walls,While softly across them the sun-light falls;Around broad meadows, quiet and green,With grazing cattle–a pastoral scene. Those towers tell of a time long past,When the red man […]

Earnest and sad the solemn taleThat the sighing winds give back,Scatt’ring the leaves with mournful wailO’er the forest’s faded track;Gay summer birds have left us nowFor a warmer, brighter clime,Where no leaden sky or leafless boughTell of change and winter-time. Reapers have gathered golden storeOf maize and ripened grain,And they’ll seek the lonely fields no […]

How hushed and still are earth and air,How languid ‘neath the sun’s fierce ray–Drooping and faint–the flowrets fair,On this hot, sultry, summer day!Vainly I watch the streamlet blueThat near my cottage home doth pass,No ripple stirs its azure hue,Still–waveless, as a sheet of glass And if I woo from yonder treesA breath of coolness for […]

Well have Canadians chosen theeAs the emblem of their land,Thou noble, spreading maple tree,Lord of the forest grand;Through all the changes Time has made,Thy woods so deep and hoarHave given their homesteads pleasant shade,And beauty to their shore. Say, what can match in splendor rareThy foliage, brightly green,Thy leaves that wave in summer’s air,Glossy as […]

Nay tell me not that, with shivering fear,You shrink from the thought of wintering here;That the cold intense of our winter-timeIs severe as that of Siberian clime,And, if wishes could waft you across the sea,You, to-night, in your English home would be. Remember, no hedges there now are brightWith verdure, or blossoms of hawthorn white;In […]

The dusky warriors stood in groups around the funeral pyre,The scowl upon their knotted brows betrayed their vengeful ire.It needed not the cords, the stake, the rites so stern and rude,To tell it was to be a scene of cruelty and blood. Yet ‘mid those guilt-stained men could any vile enough be foundTo harm the […]

Monument to Irish Emigrants. It will be in the recollection of many of our readers that during the famine years of 1847 and 1848 there was an unusual emigration from Ireland to Canada and the United States. Numbers of those who thus left their native land expired from ship fever, caused by utter exhaustion, before […]

Lonely and silent and calm it lies‘Neath rosy dawn or midnight skies;So densely peopled, yet so still,The murmuring voice of mountain rill,The plaint the wind ‘mid branches wakes,Alone the solemn silence breaks. Whatever changes the seasons bring,–The birds, the buds of joyous spring,The glories that come with the falling yearThe snows and storms of winter […]

‘Twas near the close of the dying year,And December’s winds blew cold and drear,Driving the snow and sharp blinding sleetIn gusty whirls through square and street,Shrieking more wildly and fiercely stillIn the dreary grave-yard that crowns the hill. No mourners there to sorrow or pray,But soon a traveller passed that way:He paused and leant against […]

‘Neath the radiance faint of the starlit skyThe gleaming snow-drifts lay wide and high;O’er hill and dell stretched a mantle white,The branches glittered with crystal bright;But the winter wind’s keen icy breathWas merciless, numbing and chill as death. It clamored around a handsome pile–Abode of modern wealth and styleWhere smiling guests had gathered to greetIts […]

“Oh, Earth, where is the mantle of pleasant emerald dyeThat robed thee in sweet summer-time, and gladdened heart and eye,Adorned with blooming roses, graceful ferns and blossoms sweet,And bright green moss like velvet that lay soft beneath our feet?” “What! am I not as lovely in my garb of spotless white?Was young bride in her […]

My simple story is of those times ere the magic power of steamFirst whirled the traveller o’er the plains with the swiftness of a dream,Reducing to a few days’ time the journey of many a week,That fell of old to the miner’s lot ere he “sighted” tall Pikes Peak. ‘Neath liquid sunshine filling the air, […]

Few poets yet in praise of theeHave tuned a passing lay,Yet art thou rich in beauties stern,Thou dark browed Saguenay! And those grand charms that surely formFor earth her rarest crownOn thee, with strangely lavish hand,Have all been showered down. Thine own wild flood, so deep, so dark;That holds the gaze enthralledAs if by some […]

On The Death Of The Same Reverend Nun, The Venerable Mother St. Madeleine, Ten Years Later. In Memoriam. Grief reigns now within the convent walls,And sadly float through its silent hallsThe notes of a requiem–solemn, clear,Falling like wail on each listening ear,And with tearful eyes and features pale,With low bowed head and close drawn veil,To […]

The clouds that promise a glorious morrowAre fading slowly, one by one;The earth no more bright rays may borrowFrom her loved Lord, the golden sun;Gray evening shadows are softly creeping,With noiseless steps, o’er vale and hill;The birds and flowers are calmly sleeping;And all around is fair and still. Once loved I dearly, at this sweet […]

The moon from solemn azure skyLooked down on earth below,And coldly her wan light fell alikeOn scenes of joy and woe:A stately palace reared its dome,Within reigned warmth and lightAnd festive mirth–the moon’s faint raysSoft kissed its marble white. A little farther was the homeOf toil, alas! and want,That spectre grim that countless hearthsSeems ceaselessly […]

By the side of a silvery streamlet,That flowed through meadows green,Lay a youth on the verge of manhoodAnd a boy of fair sixteen;And the elder spake of the future,That bright before them lay,With its hopes full of golden promiseFor some sure, distant day. And he vowed, as his dark eye kindled,He would climb the heights […]