Memories of Canada and Scotland — Speeches and Verses

Produced by Susan Skinner, Tom Allen, Juliet Sutherland,
Charles Franks, and the DP Team
BY THE RIGHT HON. THE MARQUIS OF LORNE K.T., G.C.M.G., &C.
Are hearts here strong enough to found A glorious people's sway? Ask of our rivers as they bound From hill to plain, or ocean-sound, If they are strong to-day? If weakness in their floods be found, Then may ye answer Nay!
Is union yours? may foeman's might Your love ne'er break or chain? Go see if o'er our land the flight Of Spring be stayed by blast or blight; If Fall bring never grain; If Summer suns deny their light, Then may our hope be vain!
Yet far too cramped the narrow space Your country's rule can own? Ah! travel all its bounds and trace Each Alp unto its fertile base, Our realm of forests lone, Our world of prairie, like the face Of ocean, hardly known!
Yet for the arts to find a shrine, Too rough, I ween, and rude? Yea, if you find no flower divine With prairie grass or hardy pine. No lilies with the wood, Or on the water-meadows' line No purple Iris' flood!
You deem a nation here shall stand, United, great, and free? Yes, see how Liberty's own hand With ours the continent hath spanned, Strong-arched, from sea to sea: Our Canada's her chosen land, Her roof and crown to be!
O fortress city, bathed by streams Majestic as thy memories great, Where mountains, floods, and forests mate The grandeur of the glorious dreams, Born of the hero hearts who died In founding here an Empire's pride; Prosperity attend thy fate, And happiness in thee abide, Pair Canada's strong tower and gate!
May Envy, that against thy might Dashed hostile hosts to surge and break, Bring Commerce, emulous to make Thy people share her fruitful fight, In filling argosies with store Of grain and timber, and each ore, And all a continent can shake Into thy lap, till more and more Thy praise in distant worlds awake.
Who hath not known delight whose feet Have paced thy streets or terrace way; From rampart sod or bastion grey Hath marked thy sea-like river greet.