"PRIDE AND PREJUDICE."
["Canada, unlike the mother-country, has the sense to be proud of its minor poets."—Mr. Le Gallienne in "The Realm."]
Really this bitter and bold accusation of
Conduct so culpable cannot be borne;
Are we indeed but a barbarous nation of
Philistines treating our poets with scorn?
Are we contemptuous, then, in reality,
Of the effusions our lyricists write—
Singing sweet songs of the Modern Morality,
Praising each other from morning to night?
Modesty, clearly, is somehow availing to
Burke them of glory which should be their own,
Modesty, morbid, excessive—a failing to
Which, it's notorious, poets are prone.
Only, he tells us, in Canada's latitude
Honour to singers is duly allowed:
Nay, how can Britons be backward in gratitude,
Having Le Gallienne, are they not proud?
Yes, when we Englishmen boast of our national
Glories and deeds, though the scoffers deride,
This is the greatest and really most rational
Source of supreme and legitimate pride—
Not in the struggles or deeds of iniquity
Wrought by our sires in desperate fray,
Still less in Shakspeare, or bards of antiquity,
But in the poets amongst us to-day!
Might we suggest, though, if, in the opinion of
Mr. Le Gallienne, England's to blame,
He and his comrades should seek the Dominion of
Canada, where they'll be certain of fame?
