Marguerite; or, The Isle of Demons and Other Poems

Chapter 38: 1881.

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About This Book

A varied collection of lyric and narrative verse centered on a long romantic legend about a woman’s ordeal on a haunted island and its personal and moral aftermath, accompanied by shorter sonnets, ballads, and occasional pieces. Many poems draw on Canadian history and local scenes, offering meditative nature writing, urban sketches of Montreal and Ottawa life, winter and carnival scenes, elegies and civic tributes, and moral or humorous vignettes about everyday people. Themes of love, exile, faith, memory, and social concern recur across diverse forms and voices, blending personal reflection with regional colour and historic atmosphere.

1881.

Year of all years, that hath been unto me More bitter than the depths of Acheron, I will not curse thee for the ill thou’st done, But bow as best I may to thy decree.

With what a buoyancy of hope and trust I gave thee generous welcome at thy birth, Swelling the chorus of the general mirth; And thou my greeting hast returned with—dust!

Two happy eyes that shone upon thy dawn, And beamed upon us from our chamber door Are quenched, and closed to open nevermore— The face, the form, the loving voice is gone.

Go, savage and inexorable year! Haste to the gloomy Hades of the Past! Not to thy memory are these moanings cast, Not for thy exit falls the hasty tear.