Canada, 1882.

"Are hearts here strong enough to found     A glorious people's sway?"     Ask of our rivers as they bound     From hill to plain, or ocean-sound,     If they are strong to-day?     If weakness in their floods be found,     Then may ye answer "Nay!"     "Is union yours? may foeman's might     Your love ne'er break or chain?"     Go see if o'er our land the flight     Of Spring be stayed by blast or blight;     If Fall bring never grain;     If Summer suns deny their light,     Then may our hope be vain!     "Yet far too cramped the narrow space     Your country's rule can own?"     Ah! travel all its bounds and trace     Each Alp unto its fertile base,     Our realm of forests lone,     Our world of prairie, like the face     Of ocean, hardly known!     "Yet for the arts to find a shrine,     Too rough, I ween, and rude?"     Yea, if you find no flower divine     With prairie grass or hardy pine.     No lilies with the wood,     Or on the water-meadows' line     No purple Iris' flood!     "You deem a nation here shall stand,     United, great, and free?"     Yes, see how Liberty's own hand     With ours the continent hath spanned,     Strong-arched, from sea to sea:     Our Canada's her chosen land,     Her roof and crown to be!