The Half-Breed Girl
The Half-Breed Girl
Original Text
The Poems of Duncan Campbell Scott (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1926): 55-56. PS 8487 C6 A17 1926 Robarts Library.
1She is free of the trap and the paddle,
3But something behind her savage life
4 Shines like a fragile veil.
5Her dreams are undiscovered,
6 Shadows trouble her breast,
7When the time for resting cometh
8 Then least is she at rest.
9Oft in the morns of winter,
10 When she visits the rabbit snares,
11An appearance floats in the crystal air
12 Beyond the balsam firs.
13Oft in the summer mornings
14 When she strips the nets of fish,
15The smell of the dripping net-twine
16 Gives to her heart a wish.
17But she cannot learn the meaning
18 Of the shadows in her soul,
19The lights that break and gather,
20 The clouds that part and roll,
21The reek of rock-built cities,
22 Where her fathers dwelt of yore,
24 The mist on the moor,
25Frail traces of kindred kindness,
26 Of feud by hill and strand,
27The heritage of an age-long life
28 In a legendary land.
30 Where the air is heavy and wild,
31She fears for something or nothing
32 With the heart of a frightened child.
33She sees the stars turn slowly
34 Past the tangle of the poles,
35Through the smoke of the dying embers,
36 Like the eyes of dead souls.
37Her heart is shaken with longing
38 For the strange, still years,
39For what she knows and knows not,
40 For the wells of ancient tears.
41A voice calls from the rapids,
42 Deep, careless and free,
43A voice that is larger than her life
44 Or than her death shall be.
45She covers her face with her blanket,
46 Her fierce soul hates her breath,
47As it cries with a sudden passion
48 For life or death.
Notes
2] portage: the carrying of a canoe across land from one lake or river to another. Back to Line
23] loch: lake (Scottish).
shealing: sheiling, pasture. Back to Line
shealing: sheiling, pasture. Back to Line
29] wigwam: native hut made of wood poles, rushes, bark, hides, etc. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1906
Publication Notes
Via Borealis (1906).
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme