Chapter I: Front Matter

HESPERUS,

AND

Other Poems and Lyrics

BY CHARLES SANGSTER,

AUTHOR OF "THE ST. LAWRENCE AND THE SAGUENAY, AND OTHER POEMS"

Montreal:

JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET.

Kingston:

JOHN CREIGHTON, KING STREET.

1860.

Entered, according to the Act of the Provincial Parliament,
in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, by
CHARLES SANGSTER, in the office ef the Registrar of the
Province of Canada.

THESE

Poems and Lyrics

ARE

DEDICATED

TO

My Niece,

CARRIE MILLER,

OF

SANDWICH, C. W.

{v}

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Dedicatory Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Hesperus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Crowned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Mariline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Happy Harvesters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Falls of the Chaudière, Ottawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

A Royal Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Malcolm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The Comet, October 1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Autumn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Colin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Margery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Eva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

The Poet's Recompense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

The Wine of Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

The Plains of Abraham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Death of Wolfe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Brock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Song for Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Song.--I'd be a Fairy King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Song.--Love while you may . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

{vi}

The Snows, Upper Ottawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

The Rapid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Lost and Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Glimpses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

My Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Her Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

The Mystery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Love and Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

The Wren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Grandpere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

England's Hope and England's Heir . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Rose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

The Dreamer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Night and Morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Within thine eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Gertrude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Flowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

The Unattainable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Yearnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Ingratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

True Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

An Evening Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

A Thought for Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

The Swallows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Song.--Clara and I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

The April Snow Storm, 1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Good Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Hopeless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Into the Silent Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

{vii}

SONNETS:--

Proem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Sonnet I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

VII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

VIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

XI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

XII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

XIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

XIV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

XV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

XVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

XVII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

XVIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

XIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

XX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

XXI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

XXII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Au Revoir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

{9}

POEMS.

DEDICATORY POEM.

Dear Carrie, were we truly wise,
And could discern with finer eyes,
And half-inspired sense,
The ways of Providence:

Could we but know the hidden things
That brood beneath the Future's wings,
Hermetically sealed,
But soon to be revealed:

Would we, more blest than we are now,
In due submission learn to bow,--
Receiving on our knees
The Omnipotent decrees?

That which is just, we have. And we
Who lead this round of mystery,
This dance of strange unrest,
What are we at the best?--

Unless we learn to mount and climb;
Writing upon the page of time,
In words of joy or pain,
That we've not lived in vain.

{10}

We all are Ministers of Good;
And where our mission's understood,
How many hearts we must
Raise, trembling, from the dust.

Oh, strong young soul, and thinking brain!
Walk wisely through the fair domain
Where burn the sacred fires
Of Music's sweet desires!

Cherish thy Gift; and let it be
A Jacob's ladder unto thee,
Down which the Angels come,
To bring thee dreams of Home.

What were we if the pulse of Song
Had never beat, nor found a tongue
To make the Poet known
In lands beyond his own?

Take what is said for what is meant.
We sometimes touch the firmament
Of starry Thought--no more;
Beyond, we may not soar.

I speak not of myself, but stand
In silence till the Master Hand
Each fluttering thought sets free.
God holds the golden key.

Kingston, C. W., May 1st, 1860.

{11}

HESPERUS:

A LEGEND OF THE STARS.

PRELUDE.

The Stars are heaven's ministers;
Right royally they teach
God's glory and omnipotence,
In wondrous lowly speech.
All eloquent with music as
The tremblings of a lyre,
To him that hath an ear to hear
They speak in words of fire.

Not to learned sagas only
Their whisperings come down;
The monarch is not glorified
Because he wears a crown.
The humblest soldier in the camp
Can win the smile of Mars,
And 'tis the lowliest spirits hold
Communion with the stars.

Thoughts too refined for utterance,
Ethereal as the air,
Crowd through the brain's dim labyrinths,
And leave their impress there;
{12}

As far along the gleaming void
Man's tender glances roll,
Wonder usurps the throne of speech,
But vivifies the soul.

Oh, heaven-cradled mysteries,
What sacred paths ye've trod--
Bright, jewelled scintillations from
The chariot-wheels of God!
When in the spirit He rode forth,
With vast creative aim,
These were His footprints left behind,
To magnify His name!

------

We gazed on the Evening Star,
Mary and I,
As it shone
On its throne
Afar,
In the blue sky;
Shone like a ransomed soul
In the depths of that quiet heaven;
Like a pearly tear,
Trembling with fear
On the pallid cheek of Even.

And I thought of the myriad souls
Gazing with human eyes
On the light of that star,
Shining afar,
In the quiet evening skies;

{13}

Some with winged hope,
Clearing the cope
Of heaven as swift as light,
Others, with souls
Blind as the moles,
Sinking in rayless night.

Dreams such as dreamers dream
Flitted before our eyes;
Beautiful visions!--
Angelo's, Titian's,
Had never more gorgeous dyes:
We soared with the angels
Through vistas of glory,
We heard the evangels
Relate the glad story
Of the beautiful star,
Shining afar
In the quiet evening skies.

And we gazed and dreamed,
Till our spirits seemed
Absorbed in the stellar world;
Sorrow was swallowed up,
Drained was the bitter cup
Of earth to the very lees;
And we sailed over seas
Of white vapour that whirled
Through the skies afar,
Angels our charioteers,
Threading the endless spheres,

{14}

And to the chorus of angels
Rehearsed the evangels
The Birth of the Evening Star.

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