Page:Canadian Singers and Their Songs.djvu/95

CANADIAN SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS Should you descend the stairway of old time,
 * And search the webbed wine cellars of the years,

The breaking of each vessel of sweet rhyme
 * Will make most merry music for thine ears.

No time is dead that gave the world a song
 * The larger hours were wet with music’s flagon,

And half the garlands of the brave belong
 * To runes that calmed the courage of the dragon

• The clouds that flowed o’er robust Rome have found
 * Another prop to lean on than her stone

But in the heart of music still abound
 * Sweet traces of her tragic poet’s tone

And yonder tower that crowds the ampler air
 * Shall dream in dust before my rhyming story.

Let those who build arise where eagles dare
 * I’ll mount, on this white page, to surer glory.

• What arrow ever pierced a traitors crown
 * That winged not out from some fair singer’s heart?

What courage on the ramparts of a town
 * But fired its vigor with our choric art?

Tomorrow one shall ride the steel–lipped way,
 * Or fold his arms when mast and helm are sinking,

Who wandered by the muses rill to–day
 * And roused his valor at my fountain drinking.

Vancouver, BCWilson Macdonald. Dec. 23rd 1913 91