Works

(P McD)


We waited for him, and the anxious days
Melted to years and floated slowly by
We spoke of him kind words of lofty praise,
Of yearning love and tender sympathy.
...

PART I

Away up on the River aux Lievres,
That is foaming and surging always,
And from rock to rock leaping through rapids,
Which are curtained by showers of spray;
...

(CLARISSA HARLOW)


Seek not to calm my grief,
To stay the falling tear;
Have pity on me, ye my friends,
The hand of God is here.

She was my only one,
Oh, then my love how great!...

With noiseless footstep, like the white-robed snow,
The old year with closed record steals away;
Record of gladness, suffering, joy, and woe,
Of all that goes to make life's little day.
...

O thou wild rantin' wicked wit;
Are thy works, thy fame livin' yet?
Will thae daft people never quit
An ne'er ha'e done
Disturbin' me in my black pit
Wi' Burn's fun.
...

The rage for writing has spread far and wide,
Letters on letters now are multiplied,
And every mortal, who can hold a pen,
Aspires in haste to teach his fellow men.
Paper in wasted reams, and seas of ink....

In the small Village of St Joseph, below the City of Ottawa, still lives or did live very recently, an ancient couple, whole story is told in the following lines.


PART I
...

Gather, oh gather! gather, oh gather
On with the philabeg every man
And up with the bonnet and badge of your father,
Belt on the plaid of the great Campbell clan
From the heather clad hills of that island...

Oh Allumette, hemmed with thy fringe of pine,
Watched over by thy mountains far away,
Thy waters have been troubled oftentime,
Never before as they have been to day!
...

(Job iii. 26)


It was not that I lived a life of ease,
Quiet, secure, apart from every care;
For on the darkest of my anxious days
I thought my burden more than I could bear....

We little children join to praise
The Holy Child of endless days.
The Lord of glory undefiled
Was once like us a little child.

Chorus.--
"Sweetly, sweetly, sweetly singing,...

(Noel.)


By the sad fellowship of human suffering,
By the bereavements that are thine and mine,
I venture--oh, forgive me!--with this offering,
I would it were to thee God's oil and wine
...

The incident related in the following lines occurred thus:--At a meeting of Presbytery appointed to deal with the case of the Reverend David Macrae, of Gourock, Scotland, one of the members of the Court had stolen out to enjoy ...

He stood up in the house to speak,
With calm unruffled brow,
And never were his burning words
More eloquent than now

Fresh from the greatest victory
That mortal man can win...

(Mr Norman Dewar, commission merchant, a native of Glengarry, Canada who had been assisting Captain McCabe as commissary of the Memphis Relief Committee, died of yellow fever after three days illness A brave and gentle nature, ...

In the Capitol is mourning,
Mourning and woe this day,
For a nation's heart is throbbing--
A great man has passed away

It was yester'even only
Rejoicing wild and high,...

We came to the dividing line,
Then he passed over and I am here,
Sad and sore is this heart of mine
That has no power to shed a tear,
For, like one who rises and walks in sleep,...

I have not wept for Edgar, as a mother
Weeps for the tender lamb she lays to rest;
And yet it cannot be that any other
Baby like him shall lie upon my breast;
For he was with us but a passing guest,...

A Prize Poem.


I know Canada is fair to see, and pleasant; it is well
On the banks of its broad river 'neath the maple trees to dwell;
But the heart is very wilful, and in sorrow or in mirth,...

O thou son of the dark locks and eloquent tongue,
With the brain of a statesman sagacious, and strong,
And the heart of a poet, half love, and half fire,
Thou hast many to love thee and more to admire;...