AUTHOR OF "THE ST. LAWRENCE AND THE SAGUENAY, AND OTHER POEMS"

Montreal:

JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET.

Kingston:

JOHN CREIGHTON, KING STREET.

1860.

Entered, according to the Act of the Provincial Parliament, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, by CHARLES SANGSTER, in the office ef the Registrar of the Province of Canada.

THESE

Poems and Lyrics

ARE

DEDICATED

TO

My Niece,

CARRIE MILLER,

OF

SANDWICH, C. W.

{v}

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Dedicatory Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Hesperus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Crowned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Mariline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Happy Harvesters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Falls of the Chaudière, Ottawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

A Royal Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Malcolm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The Comet, October 1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Autumn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Colin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Margery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Eva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

The Poet's Recompense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

The Wine of Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

The Plains of Abraham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Death of Wolfe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Brock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Song for Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Song.—I'd be a Fairy King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Song.—Love while you may . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

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The Snows, Upper Ottawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

The Rapid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Lost and Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Glimpses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

My Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Her Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

The Mystery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Love and Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

The Wren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Grandpere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

England's Hope and England's Heir . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

The Dreamer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Night and Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Within thine eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Gertrude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

The Unattainable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Yearnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Ingratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

True Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

An Evening Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

A Thought for Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

The Swallows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Song.—Clara and I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

The April Snow Storm, 1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Good Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Hopeless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Into the Silent Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

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SONNETS:—

Proem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Sonnet I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

VII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

VIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

XI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

XII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

XIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

XIV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

XV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

XVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

XVII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

XVIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

XIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

XX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

XXI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

XXII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Au Revoir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

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POEMS.

DEDICATORY POEM.

Dear Carrie, were we truly wise, And could discern with finer eyes, And half-inspired sense, The ways of Providence:

Could we but know the hidden things That brood beneath the Future's wings, Hermetically sealed, But soon to be revealed:

Would we, more blest than we are now, In due submission learn to bow,— Receiving on our knees The Omnipotent decrees?

That which is just, we have. And we Who lead this round of mystery, This dance of strange unrest, What are we at the best?—

Unless we learn to mount and climb; Writing upon the page of time, In words of joy or pain, That we've not lived in vain.

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We all are Ministers of Good; And where our mission's understood, How many hearts we must Raise, trembling, from the dust.

Oh, strong young soul, and thinking brain! Walk wisely through the fair domain Where burn the sacred fires Of Music's sweet desires!

Cherish thy Gift; and let it be A Jacob's ladder unto thee, Down which the Angels come, To bring thee dreams of Home.

What were we if the pulse of Song Had never beat, nor found a tongue To make the Poet known In lands beyond his own?

Take what is said for what is meant. We sometimes touch the firmament Of starry Thought—no more; Beyond, we may not soar.

I speak not of myself, but stand In silence till the Master Hand Each fluttering thought sets free. God holds the golden key.

Kingston, C. W., May 1st, 1860.

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HESPERUS:

A LEGEND OF THE STARS.

PRELUDE.

The Stars are heaven's ministers; Right royally they teach God's glory and omnipotence, In wondrous lowly speech. All eloquent with music as The tremblings of a lyre, To him that hath an ear to hear They speak in words of fire.

Not to learned sagas only Their whisperings come down; The monarch is not glorified Because he wears a crown. The humblest soldier in the camp Can win the smile of Mars, And 'tis the lowliest spirits hold Communion with the stars.

Thoughts too refined for utterance, Ethereal as the air, Crowd through the brain's dim labyrinths, And leave their impress there; {12}

As far along the gleaming void Man's tender glances roll, Wonder usurps the throne of speech, But vivifies the soul.

Oh, heaven-cradled mysteries, What sacred paths ye've trod— Bright, jewelled scintillations from The chariot-wheels of God! When in the spirit He rode forth, With vast creative aim, These were His footprints left behind, To magnify His name!

———

We gazed on the Evening Star, Mary and I, As it shone On its throne Afar, In the blue sky; Shone like a ransomed soul In the depths of that quiet heaven; Like a pearly tear, Trembling with fear On the pallid cheek of Even.

And I thought of the myriad souls Gazing with human eyes On the light of that star, Shining afar, In the quiet evening skies;

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Some with winged hope, Clearing the cope Of heaven as swift as light, Others, with souls Blind as the moles, Sinking in rayless night.

Dreams such as dreamers dream Flitted before our eyes; Beautiful visions!— Angelo's, Titian's, Had never more gorgeous dyes: We soared with the angels Through vistas of glory, We heard the evangels Relate the glad story Of the beautiful star, Shining afar In the quiet evening skies.

And we gazed and dreamed, Till our spirits seemed Absorbed in the stellar world; Sorrow was swallowed up, Drained was the bitter cup Of earth to the very lees; And we sailed over seas Of white vapour that whirled Through the skies afar, Angels our charioteers, Threading the endless spheres,

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And to the chorus of angels Rehearsed the evangels The Birth of the Evening Star.

———

I.

Far back in the infant ages, Before the eras stamped their autographs Upon the stony records of the earth; Before the burning incense of the sun Rolled up the interlucent space, Brightening the blank abyss; Ere the Recording Angel's tears Were shed for man's transgressions: A Seraph, with a face of light, And hair like heaven's golden atmosphere, Blue eyes serene in their beatitude, Godlike in their tranquillity, Features as perfect as God's dearest work, And stature worthy of her race, Lived high exalted in the sacred sphere That floated in a sea of harmony Translucent as pure crystal, or the light That flowed, unceasing, from this higher world Unto the spheres beneath it. Far below The extremest regions underneath the Earth The first spheres rose, of vari-coloured light, In calm rotation through aërial deep, Like seas of jasper, blue, and coralline, Crystal and violet; layers of worlds— The robes of ages that had passed away,

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Left as memorials of their sojournings. For nothing passes wholly. All is changed. The Years but slumber in their sepulchres, And speak prophetic meanings in their sleep.

FIRST ANGEL.

Oh, how our souls are gladdened, When we think of that brave old age, When God's light came down From heaven, to crown Each act of the virgin page!

Oh, how our souls are saddened, At the deeds which were done since then, By the angel race In the holy place, And on earth by the sons of men!

Lo, as the years are fleeting, With their burden of toil and pain, We know that the page Of that primal age Will be opened up once again.

II.

Progressing still, the bright-faced Seraph rose From Goodness to Perfection, till she stood The fairest and the best of all that waked The tuneful echoes of that lofty world, Where Lucifer, then the stateliest of the throng Of Angels, walked majestical, arrayed

{16}

In robes of brightness worthy of his place. And all the intermediate spheres were homes Of the existences Of spiritual life. Love, the divine arcanum, was the bond That linked them to each other—heart to heart, And angel world to world, and soul to soul. Thus the first ages passed, Cycles of perfect bliss, God the acknowledged sovereign of all. Sphere spake with sphere, and love conversed with love, From the far centre to sublimest height, And down the deep, unfathomable space, To the remotest homes of angel-life, A viewless chain of being circling all, And linking every spirit to its God.

ANGEL CHORUS.

Spirits that never falter, Before God's altar Rehearse their paeans of unceasing praise; Their theme the boundless love By which God rules above, Mysteriously engrafted On grace divine, and wafted Into every soul of man that disobeys.

Not till the wondrous being Of the All-Seeing Is manifested to finite man, Can ye understand the love

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By which God rules above, Evermore extending, In circles never-ending, To every atom in the universal plan.

SECOND ANGEL.

Oh, the love beyond computing Of the high and holy place! The unseen bond Circling beyond The limits of time and space.

Through earth and her world of beauty The heavenly links extend, Man feels its presence, Imbibes its essence, But cannot yet comprehend.

THIRD ANGEL.

But the days are fast approaching, When the Father of Love will send His interpreter From the highest sphere, That man fully may comprehend.

III.

Oh, truest Love, because the truest life! Oh, blest existence, to exist with Love! Oh, Love, without which all things else must die The death that knows no waking unto life! Oh, Jealousy that saps the heart of Love,

{18}

And robs it of its tenderness divine; And Pride, that tramples with its iron hoof Upon the flower of love, whose fragrant soul Exhales itself in sweetness as it dies! A lofty spirit surfeited with Bliss! A Prince of Angels cancelling all love, All due allegiance to his rightful Lord; Doing dishonour to his high estate; Turning the truth and wisdom which were his For ages of supreme felicity, To thirst for power, and hatred of his God, Who raised him to such vast preëminence!

SECOND ANGEL CHORUS.

Woe, woe to the ransomed spirit, Once freed from the stain of sin, Whose pride increases Till all love ceases To nourish it from within! Its doom is the darkened regions Where the rebel angel legions Live their long night of sorrow; Where no expectant morrow, No mercy-tempered ray From the altar of to-day, Comes down through the gloom to borrow One drop from their cup of sorrow, Or lighten their cheerless way.

{19}

FIRST ANGEL.

But blest be the gentle spirit Whose love is ever increased From its own pure soul, The illumined goal Where Love holds perpetual feast!

IV.

Ingrate Angel, he, To purchase Hell, and at so vast a price! 'Tis the old story of celestial strife— Rebellion in the palace-halls of God— False angels joining the insurgent ranks, Who suffered dire defeats, and fell at last From bliss supreme to darkness and despair. But they, the faithful dwellers in the spheres, Who kept their souls inviolate, to whom Heaven's love and truth were truly great rewards: For these the stars were sown throughout all space, As fit memorials of their faithfulness. The wretched lost were banished to the depths Beneath the lowest spheres. Earth barred the space Between them and the Faithful. Then the hills Rose bald and rugged o'er the wild abyss; The waters found their places; and the sun, The bright-haired warder of the golden morn, Parting the curtains of reposing night, Rung his first challenge to the dismal shades, That shrunk back, awed, into Cimmerean gloom; And the young moon glode through the startled void With quiet beauty and majestic mien.

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SECOND ANGEL.

Slowly rose the daedal Earth, Through the purple-hued abysm Glowing like a gorgeous prism, Heaven exulting o'er its birth,

Still the mighty wonder came, Through the jasper-coloured sphere, Ether-winged, and crystal-clear, Trembling to the loud acclaim,

In a haze of golden rain, Up the heavens rolled the sun, Danae-like the earth was won, Else his love and light were vain.

So the heart and soul of man Own the light and love of heaven, Nothing yet in vain was given, Nature's is a perfect plan.

V.

The glowing Seraph with the brow of light Was first among the Faithful. When the war Between heaven's rival armies fiercely waged, She bore the Will Divine from rank to rank, The chosen courier of Deity. Her presence cheered the combatants for Truth, And Victory stood up where'er she moved. And now, in gleaming robe of woven pearl, Emblazoned with devices of the stars, And legends of their glory yet to come,

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The type of Beauty Intellectual, The representative of Love and Truth, She moves first in the innumerable throng Of angels congregating to behold The crowning wonder of creative power.

THIRD ANGEL CHORUS,

Oh, joy, that no mortal can fathom, To rejoice in the smile of God! To be first in the light Of His Holy sight, And freed from His chastening rod. Faithful, indeed, that soul, to be The messenger of Deity!

FIRST ANGEL.

This, this is the chosen spirit, Whose love is ever increased From its own pare soul, The illumined goal Where Love holds perpetual feast.

VI.

With noiseless speed the angel charioteers In dazzling splendour all triumphant rode; Through seas of ether painfully serene, That flashed a golden, phosphorescent spray, As luminous as the sun's intensest beams, Athwart the wide, interminable space. Legion on legion of the sons of God; Vast phalanxes of graceful cherubim;

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Innumerable multitudes and ranks Of all the hosts and hierarchs of heaven, Moved by one universal impulse, urged Their steeds of swiftness up the arch of light, From sphere to sphere increasing as they came, Till world on world was emptied of its race. Upward, with unimaginable speed, The myriads, congregating zenith-ward, Reached the far confines of the utmost sphere, The home of Truth, the dwelling-place of Love, Striking celestial symphonies divine From the resounding sea of melody, That heaved in swells of soft, mellifluous sound, To the blest crowds at whose triumphal tread Its soul of sweetness waked in thrills sublime, The sun stood poised upon the western verge; The moon paused, waiting for the march of earth, That stayed to watch the advent of the stars; And ocean hushed its very deepest deeps In grateful expectation.

SECOND ANGEL.

Still through the viewless regions Of the habitable air, Through the ether ocean, In unceasing motion, Pass the multitudinous legions Of angels everywhere.

Bearing each new-born spirit Through the interlucent void

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To its starry dwelling, Angel anthems telling Every earthly deed of merit To each flashing asteroid.

THIRD ANGEL.

Through the realms sidereal, Clothed with the immaterial, Far as the fields elysian In starry bloom extend, The stretch of angel vision Can see and comprehend.

VII.

Innumerable as the ocean sands The angel concourse in due order stood, In meek anticipation waiting for The new-created orbs, Still hidden in the deep And unseen laboratory, where Not even angel eyes could penetrate: A star for each of that angelic host, Memorials of their faithfulness and love. The Evening Star, God's bright eternal gift To the pure Seraph with the brow of light, And named for her, mild Hesperus, Came twinkling down the unencumbered blue, On viewless wings of sweet melodious sound, Beauty and grace presiding at its birth. Celestial plaudits sweeping through the skies Waked resonant paeans, till the concave thrilled

{24}

Through its illimitable bounds. With a sudden burst Of light, that lit the universal space As with a flame of crystal, Rousing the Soul of Joy That slumbered in the patient sea, From every point of heaven the hurrying cars Conveyed the constellations to their thrones— The throbbing planets, and the burning suns, Erratic comets, and the various grades And magnitudes of palpitating stars. From the far arctic and antarctic zones, Through all the vast, surrounding infinite, A wilderness of intermingling orbs, The gleaming wonders, pulsing earthward, came; Each to its destined place, Each in itself a world, With all its coining myriad life, Drawing us nearer the Omnipotent, With hearts of wonder, and with souls of praise: Astrea, Pallas, strange Aldebaran, The Pleiads, Arcturus, the ruddy Mars, Pale Saturn, Ceres and Orion— All as they circle still Through the enraptured void. For each young angel born to us from earth, A new-made star is launched among its peers.

FULL ANGEL CHORUS.

Dreamer in the realms aërial, Searcher for the true and good,

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Hoper for the high, ethereal Limit of Beatitude, Lift thy heart to heaven, for there Is embalmed thy spirit prayer: Not in words is shrined thy prayer, But thy Thought awaits thee there. God loves the silent worshipper. The grandest hymn That nature chants—the litany Of the rejoicing stars—is silent praise. Their nightly anthems stir The souls of lofty seraphim In the remotest heaven. The melody Descends in throbbings of celestial light Into the heart of man, whose upward gaze, And meditative aspect, tell Of the heart's incense passing up the night. Above the crystalline height The theme of thoughtful praise ascends. Not from the wildest swell Of the vexed ocean soars the fullest psalm; But in the evening calm, And in the solemn midnight, silence blends With silence, and to the ear Attuned to harmony divine Begets a strain Whose trance-like stillness wakes delicious pain. The silent tear Holds keener anguish in its orb of brine, Deeper and truer grief Than the loud wail that brings relief,

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