E. S. MacLeod

“ Mute-stricken, as of sudden woe?
Silent they wait the dead.
Comes there some hero slain Upon the blood-red field of war?
With soldier-guarded funeral car,
And glittering martial train.
No gun with sullen roar; No flaunting emblems from the fight
To spread his fame, to tell his might;
Who died, to die no more.
With reverend tread, and slow, All noiselessly the footsteps fall;
As sombre garb, and plume and pall
Pass o'er the soft, white snow.
'Mid Love's choice offering Of sweet, rare flowers, whose tender breath
Speak brightest life, serenest death,
He lies, affection's king. ”

“ The mantle of his might should fall on thee, great Valor's son?
Raise up thy head, Oh Marius! look forth ayond the wave!
Yield not to dire despondency; ills conquer not the brave;
Think of thy former exile, then of that glorious hour
When suffrage of the multitude invested thee with power:
When Rome's patricians bent the knee around thy self-built throne,
And all the wills of every land succumbed unto thine own:
Though Envy forged the coward chains which dragged thy scepter down,
It may not wrest from memory thy record of renown ”

“ Oh Day of days! we welcome thee;
Bright beam on history's page! Thou font of youthful hope and glee;
Halt in our pilgrimage.
Those wreaths of red, and green and white,
Which round our altars cling, Denote, where faith is moved by sight,
His offering, Whom we sing.
The red, the atoning sacrifice;
The white, our souls made clean; Whilst life unending in the skies
Is typed by evergreen.
Blest beacon o'er our path below!
Thy story, may't extend; Till in thy pure and perfect glow,
A heaven and earth shall blend.
[70]
CHRISTMAS.
Oh! ”

“ That aught could ever bridge the gulf 'twixt such as her—and thee."
Lord Edwin proffered no reply; she was his childhood's friend;
"Come Fido!" to his faithful hound, "our cheerful way we'll wend
Across the park, adown the mead, on to the river's side
Where, 'neath the jasmine's fragrant shade, the glad hours quickly glide."
Oh! lightly o'er the heart of youth life's scathing breezes blow;
To vanish, as 'fore noonday sun, the first, soft flakes of snow;
And smiles the buoyant hope of youth as smiles the tranquil shore
When Ocean, having spent his wrath, retreats with sullen roar. ”

“ The warrior who ne'er feared a foe
Bends low his mailèd crest.
The heartless miser hugs his gold;
Affection claims its own; Yet, mystery beyond all ken,
Such gifts might ill atone.
'Neath blackened sky the wind moans on,
Wide yawns the dark abyss;— Oh Heavens! was ever sore suspense
Or terror like to this! Hark! sweet as angel symphony,
"'Tis found! the offering's found!" And forward press the eager throng
To find due vantage ground.
What star descendeth through the gloom
To rift dark sorrow's night? Is't hero from the battle field,
Or monarch girt with might? ”

“ Chaplets for brow of toil!
Rough hands, but heart all rich, Who fitly fills his niche On God's life-giving soil.
Flowers for the suffering throng!
Oh meek! long-during band! [179] High in the painless land Sad plaint will rise to song.
White-wreathe we infant tombs!
Where breathes no chilling blast, Where skies ne'er over cast, Hope's full fruition blooms.
Be-crown the aged heads
With sprays of evergreen! Earth waneth, heaven serene Undying lustre sheds.
Bright-fringe, Oh fragrant flowers!
Life's ever-changeful day; Till shadow's flit for aye, In amaranthine bowers. ”

“ Illumined days of yore,
Recall that grand, familiar sight,
When heaven seems all ablaze With floods of gold and purple light,—
Aurora's matchless rays. [42] And when, from black, dissonant sky
No stars may vigil keep; When boisterous seas exult on high
And o'er the taffrail sweep,
Bethink thee of those days to be,
When floods shall swell no more; Nor loud-voiced surge, nor angry sea
Shall break upon the shore. Where white-winged storm shall never beat
Across the verdant plain; Where severed lives, once more complete,
E'erlasting life shall gain. ”

“ But thine, beneath wide starry dome,
Along ten thousand streams, O'er many a league of richest loam,
To animate life dreams.
Thou opest, regal Canada!
Floodgates off either sea; And tyrant-crushed, and crushed of fate,
Find peaceful rest in thee. Upon thy generous-yielding sward,
And round thy teeming coast, [5] Just labor finds its just award;
Nor heart of hope is lost.
Oh high-souled! hopeful Canada!
Long may thy banner wave O'er soil where will to work is gold,
Nor man nor mind is slave. God's grace thee further, lovèd land! ”

“ Sore parting, bitter woe.
It speaketh through the vacant chair
To every yearning heart; Howe'er so noble, gifted, fair,
Earth-born on earth must part.
Good-night! Oh eyes long used to weep!
Faith spans the mist of years; High o'er life's toil, death's darksome sleep,
Heaven's fair, sweet dawn appears.
Refulgent with its glorious rays,
O'er earth, o'er ocean's foam; Where'er the weary wanderer strays,
To light the spirit home.
[188] Home to the painless, sinless land,
The never darkening sky; Where hearts ne'er break with clasp of hand;
Where friends ne'er say Good-bye. ”

“ Of this Columbian land, Why should fair youth, as tidal wreck,
Drift up on either strand? Ye mothers! when your sons set sail
On life's tempestuous seas, Why pray ye Heaven's propitious calm
To quell each rising breeze?
If haste for fame, or wealth of lore,
Or thirst for worldly pelf Be set above that priceless boon,
The power to conquer self. To guard that no insidious foe
The citadel shall win ”

“ Peal forth o'er the shimmering wave; Re-echo in souls of the brave; Bestir the hearts of the loyal and true.
[35] Waft the sweet strains from the dear Mother-land
To the dwellers by far off sea; Loud anthem the glad Jubilee From white-robed North unto burnished strand.
Anthem the years of the peaceful decades
When learning asserted its sway, And poortith revived in its ray; When science and art illumined our glades.
Broken that power which the conscience would bind,
Base umpire 'twixt God and the soul; No tyrant free speech doth control; Loosed are the fetters which burdened the mind. ”

“ In splendor decked the forest shades and gilt the wayside flowers,
Rose-tinted all the fleecy clouds which flecked the arc of blue,
Reflecting on the sullen wave a brighter, warmer hue.
[87] Yet, in its placid majesty, from out that sky serene,
That Autumn sun looked down upon a sad and bitter scene;
Starvation's wan and wasted cheek, the crushed soul of the brave,
The tomb of those who nobly earned a patriot-soldier's grave.
Lay down thine arms, Oh, hero-heart! thou shamest not thy crest;
They own no coward vassalage who bow at Heaven's behest ”

“ I'll scan the pebbly shore; Or hark the lovèd brother's lays
Chime with the plashing oar.
Yet, where no floweret ever fades,
Nor weeping wakes the morn; Where every heart, with sorrow fraught,
To joy shall be re-born. Within the great orchestral band
Glad anthems we'll prolong; Nor sickness shall discord our praise,
Nor death disturb our song. Nor ocean wide shall e'er divide,
Nor years nor space will sever; In realm of health's immortal bloom
We'll live in love for ever.
What though my hope-fraught argosy
Ne'er reached a halcyon strand; Though winds and waves have rudely tossed ”

“ What task too hard for British hands when backed by British will?
Impelled o'er war-worn field of death, of visage stained and scarred,
Till set against the citadel, a grim, relentless guard.
Out echoes through the silent streets the cannon's dolesome boom,
The famine-struck are fain to feel sure bodings of their doom;—
Four lingering days of torture, when exhausted nature calls
To sheathe the patriot sword and leave the long-loved native halls. ”

“ Draw nigh with reverence, Canada!
Beyond all strain of mortal toil He lieth, with unstainèd crest
Calm-sleeping on his chosen soil. No higher boon may patriot crave
Than grateful country's honest tear; Whilst Faith, outreaching 'yond the grave,
With stainless emblem decks the bier.
Rare mind! firm as the granite stone
From out thy much-loved Scottish hills; Soul! clear as sunlight's upper zone
When smiling o'er Canadian rills. Oh! well for thee, belovèd land! ”

“ I cherish the utmost faith in the future of Canada—faith which leads me to look beyond my little day and view her, with ample resources still developing, with invitations of welcome still extended, a full-grown nation of intelligent, enterprising and generous-souled people, more glorious by far than the world-renowned empires of the past; a nation unfettered from bigotry of sect, envy of position, and clannishness of clime; a nation whose belief is in the eternal fatherhood of God, and the universal brotherhood of humanity ”

“ While thought doth last, or memory burn
Thou may'st not strike their knell. [68] And visions from the earlier days
Within the mind arise, Illumined by a golden haze;
For earth seems near the skies.
And round our hearth the voices throng
Which tender memories bring; Those tones which died in even-song,
Those stilled in budding spring.
Once more we gather, as in one,
To list the tale oft told; That legacy from sire to son
Which waxeth never old. II.
No shrill-toned clarion wakes the night
O'er Juda's slumbering plains; No trumpet blast of armèd might
Sounds forth "Messiah reigns." ”

“ Till compassed of invading tide, till neared the bugle calls.
Unbroken columns moved ahead; with firm, free step they trod
The plain where many a hero's blood would early damp the sod.
Upon their well matched foe they oped with rain of deadly fire;
The British stirred not from their post, but hailed their presence nigher.
[82] Ho! courage of the mariner who dares the fiercest storm!
Ho! valor of the warrior who fears no hostile form!
Yet braver he who stands erect nor bows the craven head,
Though murderous fire is laying low the living with the dead. ”

“ Where youth, miraged of hope, Sees roseate vistas beam.
Hails in each star of eve,
Each lustrous, lengthening day [61] Of joyous roundelay, A world where none may grieve.
Blessed morning of the year!
Lone sickness greets the voice Which waketh to rejoice, From high to lowliest sphere.
The tiller of the soil
Goes forth in purpose strong; For Spring's exultant song Wreathes round the head of toil.
Earth! nurture well the seed;
Sun! gild the swelling grain; Heaven! sap the thirsty plain; Till plenty answers need. ”

“ Great minds in thee excel; May't long be said of thee "he served
His generation well."
Thy emblem be yon evening star;
Aye steady in its light; Calm-peering o'er a world of change;
Ne'er stooping from its height.
When darkness deepens all around,
And rivals fill the field; Let faith and courage arm thy soul,
And form thy radiant shield.
Then, when thy golden hue of morn
Gives place to sober grey; And years which never-ending seem
Have fled like one short day. ”

“ Though pomp and power of ancient Rome
With Roman idols passed away, The thirst of power, and greed of gain
Live on to mar this later day.
[125] Still boastful arrogance excels,
And moneyed ignorance soareth high; Still fashion rules the world of sham;
Still man for man in strife must die.
Yet, sure as rills from mountain source
Through varied channels seaward run; So surely ill will track the course
Of him that hath the evil done.
And conscience seared, lethargic-souled,
Who deal in evil to the last Must realize, beyond the bourne,
Deservèd doom, and mercy past. ”

“ Earth's loveliness passeth away.
Here the rich strains of rare music,
Borne upwards of summer's soft gale, Are lost in the sigh of earth's sorrows,
Or sunk in bereavement's sad wail.
There shall dear households long severed
Rejoice in the anthem sublime; [99] Hosannas of spirits united
Shall echo o'er dirges of time.
Sickness and pain shall evanish;
The years, with their sorrow shall cease;— O'er the glad souls of the ransomed
Eternity rolleth in peace. ”

“ Yield place to the lasting and true, Where the song never dies in a wail,
Nor sun ever sinks into gloom; Nor bright life in its splendor doth fail
'Fore darkness of death and the tomb.
[164] When the glare and the glitter shall wane
In glow of the chrysolite sea, For leal hearts that now struggle in vain
Shall the crown of the victor be. And sorrow-dimmed lives shall relight
With warmth from an heavenly ray; And flowerets nipped by an early blight
Shall re-bloom through an endless day. THE TREE.
WRITTEN FOR ARBOR DAY.
Thou! ”