The Guards Came Through and Other Poems

The Athabasca Trail

Subscribe for ad free access & additional features for teachers. Authors: 267, Books: 3,607, Poems & Short Stories: 4,435, Forum Members: 71,154, Forum Posts: 1,238,602, Quizzes: 344

My life is gliding downwards; it speeds swifter to the day

When it shoots the last dark ca** to the Plains of Far-away,

But while its stream is running through the years that are to be,

The mighty voice of Canada will ever call to me.

I shall hear the roar of rivers where the rapids foam and tear,

I shall smell the virgin upland with its balsam-laden air,

And shall dream that I am riding down the winding woody vale

With the packer and the packhorse on the Athabasca Trail.

I have passed the warden cities at the Eastern water-gate

Where the hero and the martyr laid the corner stone of State,

The habitant, coureur-des-bois, and hardy voyageur
Where lives a breed more strong at need to venture or endure?

I have seen the gorge of Erie where the roaring waters run,

I have crossed the Inland Ocean, lying golden in the sun,

But the last and best and sweetest is the ride by hill and dale

With the packer and the packhorse on the Athabasca Trail.

I'll dream again of fields of grain that stretch from sky to sky

And the little prairie hamlets where the cars go roaring by,

Wooden hamlets as I saw them***** cities still to be,

To girdle stately Canada with gems from sea to sea.

Mother of a mighty manhood, land of glamour and of hope,

From the eastward sea-swept islands to the sunny western slope,

Ever more my heart is with you, ever more till life shall fail

I'll be out with pack and packer on the Athabasca Trail.

Art of Worldly Wisdom Daily

In the 1600s, Balthasar Gracian, a jesuit priest wrote 300 aphorisms on living life called "The Art of Worldly Wisdom." Join our newsletter below and read them all, one at a time.

Email:

Sonnet-a-Day Newsletter

Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets! Join our Sonnet-A-Day Newsletter and read them all, one at a time.

Email: