Forty Below
Forty Below
Original Text
The Penguin Treasury of Popular Canadian Poems and Songs. Edited by John Robert Colombo. Toronto, ON: Penguin, 2002: 154-155.
1From this valley we hope to be going,
2When at last we can travel alone,
3For we're sick of the snow and the dust storms,
4In Toronto we'll find a new home.
5For it's forty below in the winter,
6And it's twenty below in the fall.
7It just rises to zero in summer,
8And we don't have a springtime at all.
9Oh my Grandpa came West in the eighties,
10To the prairies where grain grew like grass,
11But the Wheat Board and freight rates got Grandpa,
12And Grandpa went East, second class.
13For it's forty below in the winter,
14And it's twenty below in the fall.
15It just rises to zero in summer,
16And we don't have a springtime at all.
17It was raining and snowing this morning,
18At the corner of Portage and Main,
19Now it's noon and the dust storm is blowing,
20And my basement is flooded again.
21For it's forty below in the winter,
22And it's twenty below in the fall.
23It just rises to zero in summer,
24And we don't have a springtime at all.
25Then come pay for my fare if you love me,
26And I'll hasten to bid you adieu,
27So goodbye to the Red River Valley,
28And the farmers all shivering and blue.
29For it's forty below in the winter,
30And it's twenty below in the fall.
31It just rises to zero in summer,
32And we don't have a springtime at all.
Publication Start Year
1959
Publication Notes
The Winnipeg Free Press
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
Rhyme
Form
Special Copyright
"Forty Below" © Christopher Dafoe. Printed gratis, and specifically for <i>Representative Poetry Online</i>, with permission of the author. As published in <i>The Penguin Treasury of Popular Canadian Poems and Songs</i> (2002). Any other use, including reproduction for any purposes, educational or otherwise, will require explicit written permission from Christopher Dafoe.