The Lake of a Thousand Isles
The Lake of a Thousand Isles
Original Text
The English Poetical Works of Evan MacColl, with a biographical sketch of the author by A. MacKenzie (Toronto: Hunter, Rose, 1883), pp. 192-93. PR 4964 M7E6 Robarts Library.
2 There's a curse on the soil it laves;
5Be my prouder lot a Canadian cot
6 And the bread of a freeman's toils;
7Then hurrah for the land of the forests grand,
8 And the Lake of the Thousand Isles!
9I would seek no wealth, at the cost of health,
10 'Mid the city's din and strife;
11More I love the grace of fair nature's face,
12 And the calm of a woodland life;
13I would shun the road by ambition trod,
14 And the lore which the heart defiles;--
15Then hurrah for the land of the forests grand,
16 And the Lake of the Thousand Isles!
17O away, away! I would gladly stray
18 Where the freedom I love is found;
19Where the pine and oak by the woodman's stroke
20 Are disturbed in their ancient bound;
21Where the gladsome swain reaps the golden grain,
22 And the trout from the stream beguiles;
23Then hurrah for the land of the forests grand,
24 And the Lake of the Thousand Isles.
Notes
1] Title: the title refers to "an 80 km long section of the St Lawrence R, extending downstream from Lk Ontario between Kingston and Brockville and containing over 1000 rocky, wooded islands ..." (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2nd edn. [Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988], p. 2155.
Missouri: a river flowing from Montana south into the Mississippi. Back to Line
Missouri: a river flowing from Montana south into the Mississippi. Back to Line
3] Ohio: river flowing from west Pennsylvania into theMississippi. Back to Line
4] Author's note: "The above verses were written some years prior to the abolition of Slavery in the U. S. of America." Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.