Songs and Sonnets (Coleman)/I am Content with Canada
I AM CONTENT WITH CANADA.
Of countries far and famed have I been told,
And of the joys that foreign travel brings,
Of wonders, beauties one would fain behold
To stir the heart with fresh imaginings.
And I myself in storied Switzerland
Have watched the Alps in their majestic calm,
And been by jasmine-scented breezes fanned
In tropic isles that bear the stately palm.
And many a fabled castle on the Rhine
Has winged my fancy as we drifted by;
Beside the oleander and the vine
I've dreamed beneath the soft Italian sky.
But I have never been more deeply stirred
By any loveliness of land or sea
Than when upon Canadian shores I've heard
The lonely loon or curlew call to me
Across our own unnumbered Northern lakes,
And over leagues of winding water-ways
Upon whose nameless shores the aspen shakes
And yellows in the soft autumnal haze.
(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.