Page:This Canada of ours and other poems.djvu/68



Every resident in the northern and eastern counties of the Dominion has heard the note of the song sparrow in all the woods and fields through the early days of spring. While his voice is familiar to the ear, very few can boast of having seen him, so carefully does he conceal himself from view. He dwells long upon his first and second notes, and, in metrical phrase, he forms a distinct "spondee." He then rattles off at least three "dactyls" in quick succession. In different localities different words are supplied to his music. Early settlers heard him echoing their despair with "Hard times in Canada, Canada, Canada." Others maintain that he is searching for traces of a dark crime, and unceasingly demands to know "Who killed Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy?" The thrifty farmer detects the words of warning—"Come now, sow-the-wheat, sow-the-wheat, sow-the-wheat." The writer has distinctly recognized in the little song the melancholy sentiments indicated in these lines.

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This well-known song was composed by the late A. Gérin-Lajoie shortly after the Rebellion of 1837, when so many Rh