O rivers rolling to the sea <br />From lands that bear the maple-tree, <br />How swell your voices with the strain <br />Of loyalty and liberty! <br /> <br />A holy music, heard in vain <br />By coward heart and sordid brain, <br />To whom this strenuous being seems <br />Naught but a greedy race for gain. <br /> <br />O unsung streams--not splendid themes <br />Ye lack to fire your patriot dreams! <br />Annals of glory gild your waves, <br />Hope freights your tides, Canadian streams! <br /> <br />St. Lawrence, whose wide water laves <br />The shores that ne'er have nourished slaves! <br />Swift Richelieu of lilied fame! <br />Niagara of glorious graves! <br /> <br />Thy rapids, Ottawa, proclaim <br />Where Daulac and his heroes came! <br />Thy tides, St. John, declare La Tour, <br />And, later, many a loyal name! <br /> <br />Thou inland stream, whose vales, secure <br />From storm, Tecumseh's death made poor! <br />And thou small water, red with war, <br />'Twixt Beaubassin and Beauséjour! <br /> <br />Dread Saguenay, where eagles soar, <br />What voice shall from the bastioned shore <br />The tale of Roberval reveal, <br />Or his mysterious fate deplore? <br /> <br />Annapolis, do thy floods yet feel <br />Faint memories of Champlain's keel, <br />Thy pulses yet the deed repeat <br />Of Poutrincourt and d'Iberville? <br /> <br />And thou far tide, whose plains now beat <br />With march of myriad weathering feet, <br />Saskatchewan, whose virgin sod <br />So late Canadian blood made sweet? <br /> <br />Your bulwark hills, your valleys broad, <br />Streams where de Salaberry trod, <br />Where Wolfe achieved, where Brock was slain,-- <br />Their voices are the voice of God! <br /> <br />O sacred waters! not in vain, <br />Across Canadian height and plain, <br />Ye sound us in triumphant tone <br />The summons of your high refrain.<br /><br />Sir Charles GD Roberts<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/canadian-streams-2/
