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Canadian
Born
by
Emily Pauline Johnson
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“Through
Time and Bitter Distance”*
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Unknown
to you, I walk the cheerless shore.
The cutting blast, the hurl
of biting brine
May freeze, and still, and bind the waves at war,
Ere you will ever know,
O! Heart of mine,
That I have sought, reflected in the blue
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Of
those sea depths, some shadow of your eyes;
Have hoped the laughing waves would sing of you,
But this is all my starving
sight descries—
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I
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Far
out at sea a sail
Bends to the freshening
breeze,
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Yields
to the rising gale
That sweeps the seas;
[Page 34]
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II
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Yields,
as a bird wind-tossed,
To saltish waves that fling
Their spray, whose rime and frost
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crystals cling |
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III
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To canvas,
mast and spar,
Till, gleaming like a gem,
She sinks beyond the far
Horizon’s hem,
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IV
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Lost
to my longing sight,
And nothing left to me
Save an oncoming night,—
An empty sea. [Page
35]
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* For
this title the author is indebted to Mr. Charles
G. D. Roberts. It occurs in his sonnet, “Rain.”
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