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1897
(Canadian Preferential Tariff, 1897)
A NATION spoke to a Nation, | |
| A Queen sent word to a Throne: | |
| “Daughter am I in my mother’s house, | |
| But mistress in my own. | |
| The gates are mine to open, | 5 |
| As the gates are mine to close, | |
| And I set my house in order,” | |
| Said our Lady of the Snows. | |
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| “Neither with laughter nor weeping, | |
| Fear or the child’s amaze— | 10 |
| Soberly under the White Man’s law | |
| My white men go their ways. | |
| Not for the Gentiles’ clamour— | |
| Insult or threat of blows— | |
| Bow we the knee to Baal,” | 15 |
| Said our Lady of the Snows. | |
| |
| “My speech is clean and single, | |
| I talk of common things— | |
| Words of the wharf and the market-place | |
| And the ware the merchant brings: | 20 |
| Favour to those I favour, | |
| But a stumbling-block to my foes. | |
| Many there be that hate us,” | |
| Said our Lady of the Snows. | |
| |
| “I called my chiefs to council | 25 |
| In the din of a troubled year; | |
| For the sake of a sign ye would not see, | |
| And a word ye would not hear. | |
| This is our message and answer; | |
| This is the path we chose: | 30 |
| For we be also a people,” | |
| Said our Lady of the Snows. | |
| |
| “Carry the word to my sisters— | |
| To the Queens of the East and the South. | |
| I have proven faith in the Heritage | 35 |
| By more than the word of the mouth. | |
| They that are wise may follow | |
| Ere the world’s war-trumpet blows, | |
| But I—I am first in the battle,” | |
| Said our Lady of the Snows. | 40 |
| |
| A Nation spoke to a Nation, | |
| A Throne sent word to a Throne; | |
| “Daughter am I in my mother’s house, | |
| But mistress in my own. | |
| The gates are mine to open, | 45 |
| As the gates are mine to close, | |
| And I abide by my Mother’s House,” | |
| Said our Lady of the Snows. | |
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