i'^,iTS«^-'%.wyiV'V'V*^'?!i(:<:i'<:*''-^."^^'*-'^»'''' ■'r'"' ■■_T>;^'Wnr^jT7vr'A-'^r-7-v7^-?y-' Printed for Private Circulation Only. I. I am the spirit astir To swell the grain When fruitful suns confer With laboi-ing rain ; I am the life that thrills In branch and bloom ; I am the patience of abiding hills, The promise masked in doom. 11 When the sombre lands are wrung, And storms are out, And giant woods give tongue, I am the shout ; 1 And when the earth would sleep, - Wrapped in lier snows, I am the iniinite gleam of eyes that keep The post of her repose. III. I am the hush of calm, I am the speed, Tlie flood-tide's triumphing psahu, The marsh-pool's heed ; I work in the rocking roar Where catai-acfcs fall ; 1 flash in the prismy fire that dances o'er The dew's ephemeral ball. IV. I am the voice of wind And wave and tree, Of stern de.eires and blind. Of strength to be ; I am the cry by niglit At point of dawn, The sunnnoning bugle from the unseen height, In cloud and doubt withdrawn. 1 am the strife that sha^yes The stature of man, The pang no hero escapes. The blessing, the ban ; I am the hammer that moulds The iron of our race. The omen of God in our blood that a people beholds. The foreknowledge veiled in our face. Charlks G. D. Roberts. KinrfHcroft, Winchor, N. S., December, 18S9.