Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE CONFUSED DAWN by WILLIAM DOUW LIGHTHALL

First Line: WHAT ARE THE VISION AND THE CRY
Last Line: THINE BE THE EAR, THE SIGHT.
Subject(s): CANADA; CANADIANS;

WHAT are the Vision and the Cry
That haunt the new Canadian soul?
Dim grandeur spreads we know not why
O'er mountain, forest, tree and knoll,
And murmurs indistinctly fly.
Some magic moment sure is nigh.
O Seer, the curtain roll!

The Vision, mortal, it is this:
Dead mountain, forest, knoll and tree,
Awaken all endued with bliss,
A native land -- O think! to be
@3Thy@1 native land! and, ne'er amiss,
Its smile shall like a lover's kiss
From henceforth seem to thee.

The Cry thou couldst not understand,
Which runs through that new realm of light,
From Breton's to Vancouver's strand
O'er many a lovely landscape bright,
It is their waking utterance grand,
The great refrain "A Native Land!"
Thine be the ear, the sight.



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