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CANADIAN
BALLADS,
AND
OCCASIONAL VERSES.
By
Thomas D’Arcy McGee
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AUTUMN AND WINTER.
AN ANTIQUE.
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I.
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Autumn, the squire of Winter is abroad,
Making much dust upon the breezy road:
His Joseph coat with every hue is gay,
But seems as if ’t had known a sunnier day;
His master from the North is drawing nigh, |
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Fur-clad, and little favor’d to mine eye. |
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II.
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And yet this pie-bald courier doth him wrong—
He loves a friend, a bottle, and a song;
His memory’s a mine, whereof the ore
Is ever-wrought and never-ending lore.
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His white locks hide a head full of rare dreams,
Which by a friendly fire with gladness streams,
While Christmas shrives the perishing Old year
He leads the New out from the behind the bier. |
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III.
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Oh! motley Autumn, prithee mend thy pace,
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I do not like thy costume nor thy face;
Thy hollow laugh and stage proprieties
Tell of a bungling actor ill at ease.
To live such life as thine is shame, is sin—
Prithee fall back—let honest Winter in. [Page 75] |
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