Lundy's Lane, and Other Poems

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_Lundy's Lane

and Other Poems_




_By_

_Duncan Campbell Scott_


_Author of "The Magic House,"
"In the Village of Viger," etc., etc._



_McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart_
_Publishers_ :: :: :: :: _Toronto_

Copyright, 1916,
By GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America




To the Memory of My Daughter

ELIZABETH DUNCAN SCOTT

1895-1907




CONTENTS


                                                  Page

THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE                         13

VIA BOREALIS--
  Spring on Mattagami                              25
  An Impromptu                                     36
  The Half-Breed Girl                              38
  Night Burial in the Forest                       41
  Dream Voyageurs                                  44
  Song: Creep into My Heart                        45
  Ecstasy                                          46

LYRICS, SONGS AND SONNETS--
  Meditation at Perugia                            49
  At William MacLennan's Grave. Near Florence      53
  The Wood-Spring to the Poet                      56
  The November Pansy                               63
  The Height of Land                               68
  New Year's Night, 1916                           77
  Fragment of an Ode to Canada                     79
  Fantasia                                         84
  The Lover to His Lass                            86
  The Ghost's Story                                90
  Night                                            92
  The Apparition                                   94
  At Sea                                           96
  Madonna with Two Angels                          98
  Mid-August                                      100
  Mist and Frost                                  105
  The Beggar and the Angel                        110
  Improvisation on an Old Song                    117
  O Turn Once More                                121
  At the Gill-Nets                                124
  A Love Song                                     126
  Three Songs:
      I Where love is life                        128
     II Nothing came here but sunlight            129
    III I have songs of dancing pleasure          129
  The Sailor's Sweetheart                         131
  Feuilles d'Automne                              133
  To the Heroic Soul:
     I Nurture thyself, O Soul!                   135
    II Be strong, O Warring Soul!                 136
  Retrospect                                      138
  Frost Magic:
     I Now in the moonrise, from a wintry sky     139
    II With these alone he draws in magic lines   140
  In Snow-Time                                    142
  To a Canadian Lad Killed in the War             143

THE CLOSED DOOR--
  By a Child's Bed                                147
  Elizabeth Speaks                                149
  A Legend of Christ's Nativity                   154
  Willow-Pipes                                    163
  Angel                                           164
  Christmas Folk-Song                             165
  From Beyond                                     166
  The Leaf                                        167
  A Mystery Play                                  168

LINES IN MEMORY OF EDMUND MORRIS                  179




THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE




THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE

Rufus Gale speaks--1852


Yes,--in the Lincoln Militia,--in the war of eighteen-twelve;
Many's the day I've had since then to dig and delve--
But those are the years I remember as the brightest years of all,
When we left the plow in the furrow to follow the bugle's call.
Why, even our son Abner wanted to fight with the men!
"Don't you go, d'ye hear, sir!"--I was angry with him then.
"Stay with your mother!" I said, and he looked so old and grim--
He was just sixteen that April--I couldn't believe it was him;
But I didn't think--I was off--and we met the foe again,
Five thousand strong and ready, at the hill by Lundy's Lane.
There as the night came on we fought them from six to nine,
Whenever they broke our line we broke their line,
They took our guns and we won them again, and around the levels
Where the hill sloped up--with the Eighty-ninth,--we fought like devils
Around the flag;--and on they came and we drove them back,
  Until with its very fierceness the fight grew slack.

It was then about nine and dark as a miser's pocket,
When up came Hercules Scott's brigade swift as a rocket,
And charged,--and the flashes sprang in the dark like a lion's eyes;
The night was full of fire--groans, and cheers, and cries;
Then through the sound and the fury another sound broke in--
The roar of a great old duck-gun shattered the rest of the din;
It took two minutes to charge it and another to set it free.
Every time I heard it an angel spoke to me;
Yes, the minute I heard it I felt the strangest tide
Flow in my veins like lightning, as if, there, by my side,
Was the very spirit of Valor.