Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/61

 Douglas Leader Durkin Stout-hearted hewers of forests,
 * Brown-beaten men of the soil

Heard from afar the grim challenge of war—
 * Rose in the sweat of their toil.

Back went the word from a people
 * Bred with a will to be free,

Mother, thy daughter stands ready
 * Still to prove daughter to thee!'

Spoke then the heart of the Mother,
 * Swelling with pride in her Day,

'Soul of my soul, where the battle-clouds roll,
 * We are one soul in the fray!'

HY, with the odds ten to one, did they stay, Playing the game for a wager of blood, Holding a legion of demons at bay
 * For a day and a night, for a night and a day—
 * Do you ask why they stood?

Shed on the soul of a man of the plains Beams of a sun with a quickening ray, Fill the young blood of his wild coursing veins Full of the pride of his orient day; Trace on his brow in the light of the morn Symbols of dreams of a nation to be, Touch him to visions of cities unborn Crowding the shores of a shimmering sea;

Bring to the soul of a man of the hills Harrowing winds from the canyons of snow, Give him to know in the thing that he wills Men can be gods though they suffer below; Show him the stars where they set on the rim Crowning the granite that lifts to the blue, Tune the great chords of his soul to the hymn Sung by the planets the living night through;