"But, to-morrow, sweet Spirit!" he said, "Be at home after midnight, and then "I will come when your lady's in bed, "And we'll talk o'er the subject again." So she whisper'd a word in his ear, MRS. ΤΟ To see thee every day that came, And find thee every day the same, In pleasure's smile or sorrow's tear The same benign, consoling Dear! To meet thee early, leave thee late, Has been so long my bliss, my fate, That life, without this cheering ray, Which came, like sunshine, every day, And all my pain, my sorrow chac'd, Is now a lone and loveless waste.Where are the chords she us'd to touch? Where are the songs she lov'd so much? The songs are hush'd, the chords are still, And so, perhaps, will every thrill Of friendship soon be lull'd to rest, Which late I wak'd in Anna's breast! Yet no-the simple notes I play'd fade; On memory's tablet soon may A CANADIAN BOAT-SONG. WRITTEN ON THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE*. ET REMIGEM CANTUS HORTATUR. Quintilian. FAINTLY as tolls the evening chime, Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time. * I wrote these words to an air, which our boat-men sung to us very frequently. The wind was so unfavourable, that they were obliged to row all the way, and we were five days in descending the river from Kingston to Montreal, exposed to an intense sun during the day, and at night forced to take shelter from the dews in any miserable hut upon the banks that would receive us. But the magnificent scenery of the St. Lawrence repays all these difficulties. Soon as the woods on shore look dim, Our Voyageurs had good voices, and sung perfectly in tune together. The original words of the air, to which I adapted these stanzas, appeared to be a long, incoherent story, of which I could understand but little, from the barbarous pronunciation of the Canadians. It begins Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontré And the refrain to every verse was A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer, A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais danser. I ventured to harmonize this air, and have published it. Without that charm, which association gives to every little memorial of scenes or feelings that are past, the melody may perhaps be thought common and trifling; but I remember when we have entered, at sunset, upon one of those beautiful lakes, into which the St. Lawrence so grandly and unexpectedly opens, I have heard this simple air with a pleasure which the finest compositions of the first masters have never given me, and now, there is not a note of it, which does not recal to my memory the dip of our oars in the St. Lawrence, the flight of our boat down the Rapids, and all those new and fanciful impressions to which my heart was alive during the whole of this very interesting voyage. The above stanzas are supposed to be sung by those voyageurs, who go to the Grande Portage by the Uta |