Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79.
The Bay of Quinte
By Charles Sangster (1822–1893)S
Attends thy footsteps! Here thy face
With fine creative glory shone,
Like a mild seraph’s near the throne,
On that fair morn when first thy wing
Passed o’er the waters, brightening
The solemn shores that gravely lay
Far, far along the tranquil bay.
But like a sweet, prophetic dream,
The landscape stretched, unfolding still,
In gently sloping vale and hill;
Bright woods of every shade of green;
And over all, the sun, serene,
Rolled back the shadowy mists of gray
That veiled the bosom of the bay.
Was with thee when the forest rose
And flung its leafy mantle o’er
The changeful wild on either shore?
Spirits of Rest and Peace! for here
They build their bowers year by year,
Creating yet, from day to day,
Fresh graces for their favorite bay.
The fairest ’neath Canadian skies,
Trembling with grace and beauty rare,
Blushing to know how sweet and fair
The lovely features all remain,
Untouched, untainted, free from stain;
The matchless face as warm and gay
As when first mirrored in the bay.
Receding from the dash and roar
Of the hoarse billow from the deeps
Of the wide lake; rare woodland sweeps
Of upland wild and deep ravine,
In undulating swells of green;
And grassy banks that shoreward stray,
To toy with the delightful bay.
Dotted with stately herds that shun
The summer heats beneath the shade
Of some old remnant of the glade;
Or having sought the cooling stream,
Defy the sun’s intensest beam,
Fanned by the graceful airs that play
O’er the calm surface of the bay.