Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79.

British America: Montmorency, the River, Canada

The Montmorency Waterfall and Cone

By Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838)

WE do not ask for the leaves and flowers

That laugh as they look on the summer hours;

Let the violets shrink and sigh,

Let the red rose pine and die:

The sledge is yoked, away we go,

Amid the firs, o’er the soundless snow.

Lo! the pine is singing its murmuring song

Over our heads as we pass along;

And every bough with pearl is hung

Whiter than those that from ocean sprung.

The sledge is yoked, away we go,

Amid the firs, o’er the soundless snow.

The ice is bright with a thousand dyes

Like the changeful light in a beauty’s eyes.

Now it neareth her blush, and now

It weareth the white of her marble brow.

The sledge is yoked, and away we go,

Beneath the firs, o’er the soundless snow.

We are wrapped with ermine and sable round,

By the Indian in trackless forests found;

The sunbeams over the white world shine,

And we carry with us the purple wine.

The sledge is yoked, and away we go,

Beneath the firs, o’er the soundless snow.