Page:Songs and Sonnets (1906).djvu/47

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(And O to swing away where all is new,
 * And share the haunts of shy and tameless things,

To dip one's paddle in the liquid blue
 * And skim the water lightly as with wings!)

When on the broad St. Lawrence some gray day,
 * Among those islands wrought of mist and dreams,

I drift to realms of unreality
 * Where all the world a lovely vision seems;

Or when among the Rockies I have caught
 * The sudden gleam of peaks above the cloud,

And on the tumult of my quickened thought
 * New visions, dreams and aspirations crowd;

Or, thinking of the future and of all
 * That generations yet unborn shall see—

The forests that for axe and ploughshare call,
 * The wealth of golden harvests yet to be,

I am content with Canada, and ask
 * No fairer land than has been given me,

No greater joy, no more inspiring task,
 * Than to upbuild and share her destiny.