"I used to wear a gown of green
And sing a song to May,
When apple blossoms starred the stream
And Spring came up the way.
"I used to run along with Love
By lanes the world forgets,
To find in an enchanted wood
The first frail violets.
"And ever 'mid the fairy blooms
And murmur of the stream,
We used to hear the pipes of Pan
Call softly through our dream.
"But now, in outcry vast, that tune
Fades like some little star
Lost in an anguished judgment day
And scarlet flames of war.
"What can it mean that Spring returns
And purple violets bloom,
Save that some gypsy flower may stray
Beside his nameless tomb!
"To pagan Earth her gown of green,
Her elfin song to May—
With all my soul I must go on
Into the scarlet day."
The poets have been the celebrants of many of the historic epochs of Canada and the recorders of her great names; and in this especial line John Daniel Logan has rendered an interesting service in his Songs of the Makers of Canada. In these Dr. Logan has celebrated Cartier as the "dauntless discoverer," Champlain as the "first Canadian," Laval as "the high-priest of knowledge," Wolfe as the "illustrious victor," Brock the "valiant leader," Drummond the "indomitable soldier," Ryerson the "renowned educator," Howe the "champion of self-government," Macdonald the "great confederationist," Laurier the "prophetic imperialist." Such a collection, in its vigour and vividness of personal characterisation, is the very intellectual panorama of Canada. Of Macdonald, the "great confederationist," the First Premier of the Dominion (1867), we find Dr. Logan saying:
"Macdonald, though thy soul hath passed away
From wonted wolds in our Canadian land,
Where thou wast chiefest of the fervid band
That sought to give the people fullest sway
O'er their own destiny, thy spirit goes
Triumphant in this Canada of ours
Resplendent now before the elder Pow'rs
Who mark how virile our young nation grows!
"Thy wisdom was the vision of a seer
Who knew the meaning of the pregnant days
Which gen'rous Time should father into ways
For unity...."
In the memorial lyric to William Henry Drummond, whom Dr. Logan enshrines as "Sovereign of Joy and Prince of Tears," the poet touches perhaps his most musical note in the lines: