Young Canada, or Jack's as Good as his Master
Young Canada, or Jack's as Good as his Master
Original Text
Alexander McLachlan, Poems and Songs (Toronto: Hunter, Rose, 1874): 119. Internet Archive.
1I love this land of forest grand!
2 The land where labour's free;
3Let others roam away from home,
4 Be this the land for me!
6 That snobs may thrive the faster;
7And all are free, as men should be,
8 And Jack's as good's his master!
9Where none are slaves, that lordly knaves
10 May idle all the year;
11For rank and caste are of the past,--
12 They'll never flourish here!
13And Jew or Turk if he'll but work,
14 Need never fear disaster;
15He reaps the crop he sowed in hope,
16 For Jack's as good's his master.
17Our aristocracy of toil
18 Have made us what you see--
19The nobles of the forge and soil,
20 With ne'er a pedigree!
21It makes one feel himself a man,
22 His very blood leaps faster,
23Where wit or worth's preferred to birth,
24 And Jack's as good's his master!
25Here's to the land of forests grand!
26 The land where labour's free;
27Let others roam away from home,
28 Be this the land for me!
29For here 'tis plain, the heart and brain,
30 The very soul grows vaster!
31Where men are free, as they should be,
32 And Jack's as good's his master!
Notes
5] moils: has to do dirty work. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form