Dimmed thy bright eyes, Oh Canada!
Bedimmed with the incense of woe; Hushed thy young joy-peals of laughter;
Whose heart beat to thine lieth low. Great heart! which, in truest devotion,
Kept faith to its earliest shrine; Great land! widely girthed of each ocean;
His lifetime of service was thine.
Well mays't thou weep, yet not repine;
Rude wert thou, an untutored child, When first his strong, firm hand clasped thine,
And led thee o'er thy boundless wild, And cleared the mists from thy young eyes,
As with magician's gifted wand; Till Hope's bright dawn illumed thy skies,
And glorified this boundless land.
The mind astute discerned thy force;
The springs of plenty watered dearth; Then rose, from infound, ample source,
The mightiest structure on this earth: The home where freeborn souls are free;
Where, 'neath blue skies, o'er rich green sod No worship bends the humble knee,
Save homage to fair Freedom's God.
Though sore thy heart, Oh Canada!
Grudge not thy Chief his well-earned rest; The veteran who hath braved the strife
May fold his arms o'er peaceful breast. Droop banners o'er his honored bier!
Strew immortelles of every clime! His larger life, in nobler sphere,
Is bounded not with hedge of time.
[HON. ALEX. MACKENZIE.]
BORN 28TH JANY., 1822—DIED 17TH APRIL, 1892.
Draw nigh with reverence, Canada!
Beyond all strain of mortal toil He lieth, with unstainèd crest
Calm-sleeping on his chosen soil. No higher boon may patriot crave
Than grateful country's honest tear; Whilst Faith, outreaching 'yond the grave,
With stainless emblem decks the bier.
Rare mind! firm as the granite stone
From out thy much-loved Scottish hills; Soul! clear as sunlight's upper zone
When smiling o'er Canadian rills. Oh! well for thee, belovèd land!
That, ripening to thy golden prime, Stout hearts, and faithful held thine hand
And led thee on to ampler time.
Embalm his memory, Canada!
Nor taint with ill his honored name Who loved thee dearer than his life;
Who, serving thee, rejected fame. Not now, through many an after year;
In cool, calm retrospect of time, Shall all his sterling worth appear,
In grandeur fitting and sublime.
Though stilled the aims of lofty end;
Though leaders in the field lie low; Heaven's purposes shall onward tend,
As ocean wavelets shoreward flow. Wail not! he walketh in the light
His work, imbued with high intent, Doth magnify a country's might,
And build his fairest monument.