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D 22X 1 2 3 4 5 6 THU SAGUENAY: ^ / AN UNPUBLISHED POEM. '/. ■^« ♦ »»» PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, SI. NICnOLAS STREET. 1860. 4?» mi to Sa ice was frozen o'er the floods. And snows lay deep in pathless woods : The sun's cold light shone pale on high, From azure vault of noonday sky ; The solemn stillness of the air. Was scarce by echo ruflled there. Save as the hunter and the deer. Swept thro' the forest wild and drear. The earth seeni'd dead, or had grown old, All nature was so calm and cold. Away, away, still bounding on. Far in his flight the deer hath gone.— By his hght snow-shoe, well upborne, The hunter's strength is still unworn : Slow on the wearied stag he gains, Wliich still liis onward course maintains. THE SAQUENAY. Of Trinity, in headlong fiight, He reached at length the dizzy height ; Then rushing frenzied, deep in snow, He plunges to the depths below; Down, down in wild affright, despair, Upon the icy, iron glare ; There, crushed in pieces, cold he lay :— The hunter came, then went his way. 11 I, VI. But pause not here, nor linger thus too Ion-, ±ar other scene must soon engage our song. The Capes recede, we still ascend the stream, Which lies like mirror in the sultry beam. The gentle breeze then sudden died away. And on the flood becalmed our vessel lay. A solemn hour, when memory sways the heart. And each to each doth deeper thoughts impart! Bright hope is there, brief revel of our youth, Wliich woos our dreams, till we awake to truth ; While age serene still mingles with the throng, ' And so the day goes thoughtfully along. But, hark! there comes, resounding from afar A hollow roar of elemental war. 1«> THE SAGUENAY. The summer sun and glowin":; skies are gone, And rusliiii;^ winds boar the tornado on. Clouds charged with tempests, mountain-like in form, Rise black as Ilell, from realms of night and storm. Onward they roll, and with them through the skies, The fiery vapour of the lightning flies. Old earth is still, the hush of doom is there, And deepening horror broods upon the air : Flash the quick lightnings, fork'd, livid from on high, Then bursts the dread artill'ry of the sky : Crashing, far boimding, down rolling with each shock, Till the vast mountains on their centres rock : Dark thunder-thrones, which echo the rebound, Booming afar 'mong thousand hills around : Stern echoes answering from each gloomy vale, Rise on the breeze, then rush upon the gale. Waking the ruin from eternal sleep. Thro' hoary palaces along that deep ; And back, beyond, where'er the bolt is hurl'd. O'er rocky mountiiins, and the polar world. — The floods descend, a deluge from the clouds. And midnight gloom the mighty gulph enshrouds. The watery whirlwinds dash upon each shore, Drowning the echo in the dread uproar. ;onc, like in form, and storm. I the skies, re. com on high, 1 each shock, ock: )ound, (1: 7 vale, lie, irlM, 1— lids, shrouds. ore, THE SAQUENAi. Tliat realm of storms, dark as ahyss profound, Is veiled in niglit for many a league around ; And far athwart the clouds upon that stream Flashes in wrath the lightning's lurid gleam ; Then (piick as light, resistless o'er the whole. Appalling still the solemn thunder's roll. With awe we view the horrors of the scene, O'er which, that mom, such sweet repose had been. Our gallant ship, tlie tempest's wrath defies, And with all sail, soon seeks serener skies. vrr. There is a talc, 'tis one of woe, A tale of many a year ago. Which this wild storm brought back again, In memories fading from my brain. 'Twas told to me in long-gone years. And then it left sad thoughts behind ; In sooth I shed some early tears O'er love that lived, so deep enshrined. In broken heart, and ruined mind. 'Tis said a youth and his fair bride, Were sailing on that sullen tide. In a light boat, which spread its sail, 18 I" 14 THE SAQUENAY. To wand'ring breeze and rising gale. Few days had passed since they were wed, And fond the love wliich blest them yet, . In their young dreams, which scarce had fled. Before life's summer sun had set. From parents, friends, and scenes of joy. With smiles they part, and youthful hope ; They ne'er had known the world's alloy, Or ills with which we all must cope. The heaven was blue, the sun rode high. There passed no cloud o'er the noonday sky : The winds were lulled in their calmest sleep, And waves rose not on the winding deep. They went not forth that day alone ; Companions gay, with them had gone. Each gazed upon the scenes around, And hours so glad, too brief they found. But dark and fearful soon arose. O'er nature's sweet and soft repose, A storm of thunder, wind, and rain. From which they refuge sought in vain. Of their frail bark, the stricken sail. Bows to the waters 'neath the gale. The bark, a moment, quivering stood, THE SAGUENAY. Then, overturned, floats on the flood. All perished there, save that young bride, Who clung, then clunbed the boat's dark side. Thus borne, upheld, she reached the shore, With widowed heart, and your • no more. On shelving rock, she safety found, 'Mid rugged clifis, above, around. Aloft each crag its summit rears ; For her no exit thence appears. In those brief moments, wild despair, Had blighted Hfe, till then so fair. Alas ! that lightning stroke of grief, In madness soon will find relief. The frail, the subtle links, which make The chain of reason ere it break, Were snapped by rude and sudden shock, Perchance before she gained the rock. There waihng by the lonely deep, She calls her loved, her lost from sleep. His bridal bed 's below the wave, Nor deems she yet it is his grave. Her raven hair, dishevelled now, Hangs loosely round her pallid brow ; And her dark eye, calm, fixed, forloin, 15 sit 16 THE SAGUENAY. Which beamed so bright upon that mom, Hath lost its ray of joy and light, Soft lustre-shade of starry night. At intervals a dull repose. Benumbs to rest her sleepless woes. Thus hours fled, dim twilight came. Her silent look of grief the same. Then the high stars which gem the night, Shed o'er that stream their sacred light : And deep below, each mirrored beam Shines softly bright in that wild stream ; Which still and cold, when wmds had fled, Flow'd o'er the mourned, the lost, the dead. The hush of night, in solemn hour. Dwells on each mighty, mountain shore. In depths serene of azure sky, The queen of night is seen on high : The lonely one beholds that scene. So changed from all such mom had been. The barren rock below, her bed ; Unsheltered, too, her lonely rest, No pillow waits that drooping head, No sleep to soothe that hapless breast. One day and night of pale despair, 'Cu THE SAOUEXAY. She pines in grief, and madness there ; Her wand'ring gaze, her haggard eye,' Too well bespeak her agony ; While low and mournful o'er the surge, Went forth, at times, her wailing dirge.' The drifting boat was found below, Near to a place named rAnse d VUau, Which at the entrance of the stream. Lies on the right. Tho' small it seeL, That village long for tales oft told. Was famous in the days of old. In weary search, with heavy heart. Intrepid men, the lost had sought. Along each shore, in every part, Where dangers past too well had taught. At length their bark drew near the scene, Where she, thus wrecked, so long had been. The spot they gain ; by them descried. They knew her soon for that young bride. When first they came, no word she'' said, Nor sign of fear, or joj, betrayed : But when tliey sought her thence to lead, She rose with look wild, full of dread ; And pointed to the wave that flowed, B IT IS THE SAOUENAY. Beneath the summer sky that glowed. She told them she still there must bide, Till he should come with evening tide. And then they saw that she was mad, And so had guessed from looks so sad. She told them cahnly where he slept, And smiled at first, and then she wept. To her 'twas said these friends had come. From him she mourned, and loved so well, To seek, escort her to that home. Where she with him would safely dwell. And then she smiled, but, oh ! such smile Of wasted hope ! but went the while. To L'Anse d VEau, from this dark shore, That maniac bride, they gently bore. Then leeches came, despite her will. To heal a wound beyond their skill. All now is vam ; life fades away. And her soul darkens day by day. Nor time, nor change, their lessons teach, Nor could oblivion's shadows reach That broken heart, and shattered mmd, By grief and madness left behind. In visions of the haunted brain, THE SAQUENAY. She wanders o'er the past again. Oftimes slie says, J,c sleeps below, Where waters darkly, deeply flow. And then she dreams he is not dead And ealls him to her dying bed. One eruel thought, still blights the heart, And brings the tear to her dark eye • ^Ne'er from her breast will it depart, ' 'Tis that he leaves her there to die He eould not know, ean know no more That love for her whieh once he bore. ' Sad, gentle memories, all forlorn, Return, alas! to that bright moni. To hope, to love, which now she deems For ever gone, like vanish'd dreams. It came, at length, the fatal hour, When she must pass from life away ; And then her mind regained its plwer, lit by the light of reason's ray. 'Twaa midnight time, so calm and blest; % wmdowed arch and open blind. Where she had known a long unrest, On her lone couch she then reclined Watching the waning moon arise, li^ 20 THE SAGUENAY. And twinkling stars in dark blue skies ; With last, long look, and mournful brow, Upon the night she gazes now. Her thoughts are with the loved of earth, And thus she pours her spiiit forth : 1. The stars arc low, low in the west, The moon ascends the midnight sky ; Come, my beloved, come to thy rest, Come pray for me before I die. 2. Come from thy cold, thy oozy bed, Where death and silence darkly reign ; On my worn heart lay that loved head, And, ere I go, I'll soothe each pain. 8. Come, my loved one, my lamp burns low. But reason half resumes her sway ; Come kiss once more this faded brow, 'Twill soon be colder than the clay. THE SAaUENAY. 4. My darkened soul has wandered far, O'er bli-hted hopes of our youn- years ; But madness ne'er my love could mar, Or dry the fountain of my tears. 6. Within my heart thy name 's enshrined, In love too fond for time's decay ; And, 'mid dark, ruined waste of mind, My deathless love will weep and pray. 6. Wilt thou not come, my long lost one, Once more to bless me with thy love ? Wilt thou forget, when I am gone, To holier, brighter worids above? 21 7. Thou canst not come,— but I will go. Will seek thee in thy lonely rest; In heaven above, or earth below ; 'Twere better thus than live unblest. i THE fiAiit'EXAr, Swot angol voices, ioraph cyea, Invito mo to celestial homo ; To tlicm, to thoo, my spirit flics ; On wings of hope, of love, I come. A silont Avatcher hoard that strain, Ami softly enterca where she lay ; She gently spoke— 'twas all in vain ; That once bright eye hatl lost its ray. The broken heart beat faint and low, And hues of death were on her brow. Why lin^'or here, this tale prolong ? With this her sad, last, broken song, Her dying dirge upon that day, That stricken soul had passed away : In Tadousac, from all her woes, She sleeps alone, in long repose. viir. Too long I've wandered from those hamits sublime, 'Mid old traditions of forgotten time. Along those shores, upon that silent flood, Grim desolation must forever brood. .1 THE 8AULENAY. Tlio wintry wind, with avaluncho of snow, Falling in thunder to tho depths hoI.)w ; The vernal hrcath, tho sunsluno and the rain, Sweep o'er those he;;,ditH, dwell on that tide in vain. Nor summer fruit, nor flowei-s of early Hprin;^, Nor joyouy bird upon etherial wing, A homo >^U1 find upon tho barren height, Or ii. lono cave where dwells eternal night. No piercing eye, nor the proud mind of man, Will ere these solitudes of nature scan. There they repose, like wrecks of a lost world, From chaos sprung, perchance from glory hurl'd. Did this dim wilderness, this dread abode. Go forth thus blighted from the hand of God ? Or did the deluge, in a later time, Leave on these shores stern monuments of crime ? When the all-wasting waters ebb'd away, Did they this realm in sterile ruin lay ? Or hath the earthquake, in some distant age, Upheaved the mountains in its fiery rage ? Rocking the d-xM earth to depths profound, An.: in its wraih, which shook the heights around, Cleavhig the solid hills ? the shock is heard on high. Loud as ten thousand thunders in the sky ; 2H 24 THE SAGUExVAY. Then booms the war of crashing rocks below, In that abyss where now dark waters flow. Ilatli the volcano, in an unknown time, Laid in wild waste this rude and wondrous clime ? And did its crater first, and then its grave, A channel leave for that eternal wave ? Or hath some other cataclysm past. In endless woe, this mighty land o'ercast? Where now the cold, unfathomed waters sweep, Perchance the genii of destruction sleep ;— Beneath those ruins, stern and dim and old, By time unchanged, their mystery still untold. IX. Far traditions have come down, By ancient men obscurely shown : But one there is of recent date, Which briefly here I would relate. 'Tis said that near a dizzy height. And fearful to the passer's sight, There stood a lone, mysterious cave. High o'er that dark, remorseless wave. In passing there, we yet behold Some traces of that tale thus told. 3 below, flow. Irous clime ? ;rave, ? ast? rs sweep, sp;— 1 old, untold. THE SAQUENAY. An open arch, halfup the Steep, Still faces outward on the deep. Within that haunt, perchance for crime, A hermit dwelt, in bygone time: Thro' summer's heat, and winter's stora. Was seen his bent, his aged form. For years, they say, the passers by. Wild wanderers o'er that silent stream, The lonely man would oft espy. When tho first dawn of day would beam. Though slight the entrance which it gave, A path obscure, led from the cave, Toward dark forests, which appear, Stretched to the mountains far in rear. Wliat, whence his food, no one could tell. Or what that hermit had befel : The old recluse, no man e'er saw, Save from the waters far below. One day some himters sought him there. At risk of life, high o'er the wave ; His bones they found, disposed with care,' With the cold stones for bier and grave. Within that cell, his relics sleep, Beside that opening on the deep; 25 2« THE SAGUENAY. He left no sign, no word, no trace, From whence he came, or what liis race. r X. Enthroned in glories of the dying day, The setting sun still lingers on his way. Effulgent orb, far sinking to his rest, Low o'er the boundless regions of the west, Wiat heavenly light hath blazed around that sun, In that high world, thro' which his course hath run ! His rays illume where tropic summer glows, And bear his radiance to the polar snows. Now from the hills his golden beams decline. Where mystic clouds their matcliless hues combine. Relucent waves of undulating light, Lave sapphire thrones, all splendor to the sight. Yet, Saguenay, thy cold, dark waters flow. Silent, unfathomed, 'mong the rocks below ; And evening sunhght, blazmg o'er the deep, Will reach no depths, where thy dread mysteries sleep. On the vast cliffs, which gird thy sullen shores, The mighty orb a flood of glory pours ; And every beam, descending from on high. Reflects below the halos of the sky. c. vest, 1 tliat sun, •sc hath run ! lows, m. cline, es combine. le sight, ow. )w; eep, nysteries sleep. shores. L^h, THE SAGUEXAY. So on thy heights, and long thro' ages gone, Tlie golden daj-beams of that sun have'Ihon'o : And o'er thy solitudes, thro' future time. Will light the summits of thy scenes sublime. But smis ^vill shine, and heat will glow in vain, For hfe comes not, will never come again. This was, is now, must bo a blighted Tand Till changed, till bless'd by an Almighty hand. XI. Meihinks I see, in waking dream. The voyagers upon that stream, In future ages, thro' aU time, As pilgrims hail this wondrous clime. Ascending there, on many a morn, Far generations, yet unborn, Will view with awe each sterile height, From beam of dawn to starry night. And trusting youth, which knows no fears. With gladdened eye, undimm'd by tears, ' May breathe soft vows, their songs of priise, With sunny hope of early days. I5ut they will pass, are passing now, With woe-worn heart and furrowed brow. 2T 28 THE SAGUENAY. t '! The shattered ruins, left behind, Of joys they sought, but could not find. New generations will succeed, With change of time, of name and creed. Strange populations there may meet. And, 'mid those scenes, each other gi-eet. There may be wanderers, in those times. From the Pacific's golden climes ; And the Atlantic's darker shores, "V\Tiere ocean's wave unceasing roars. The curious to this land may send. Where tribes, where nations thus may blend. And travellers from the distant isles, From Europe's ancient realms afar ; ■\Vliere eastern sun in splendor smiles. Soft hour like this may calmly share. And far beyond, proud states may rise. Moved on by war, by enterprise ; Till those vast regions, 'neath their hand. May grow to great and glorious land. O'er these dark waters fleets may ride And conflicts rage upon that tide. Then tliis unfathomed stream will be Highway of nations from the sea. m l. set. s. THE SAOUE^rAr. Some tyrant yet may build a throne, In realms to all our race unknown ; Or famed republics may expand, With sacred freedom, high command, Thro' solitudes yet unexplored, And God and truth be there adored. 29 )lend. xir. With waning light of sinking sun. Our long, bright summer day is done. On the horizon, far away, The dark Laurentian mountains lay. On glowng heights, we watch the gleam. Of sunset's last, expiring beam ; Where solemn glories meet the view. And melt to tmlight's deeper hue. Our sail expands, is set once more, Towai-ds a smiling, distant shore. While shadows veil the eastern skies. O'er buoyant waves our vessel flies, Before the rising ocean breeze, Which sweeps those azure, inland seas. Lone Saguenay we leave behind, Each with a thoughtful, saddened mind. II -I ^^ THE SAGUENAY. Dim rev'ries wander back again. In retrospection, fraught with pain. Tliat sullen stream, each sterile shore, Where hope, where life, can come no more, A gloom have cast upon the soul, ' By some now felt beyond control. The scenes long doom'd of that dread land, And depths without a shoal, or strand, Are all reviewed, remembered now, And shade with deeper thought the brow. Alas ! we'll rest in grave as cold, With many a hidden grief untold ; And lost in shades, in night more deep. Mysterious gloom will shroud our sleep. Like woes long past, they leave their trace. Pale memories time can ne'er efface. Thro' coming years, their gloom will rest Upon the soul like dream unblest ; And there survive, till some are old. And weary hearts are worn and cold. Remembrance lingering o'er the past. With graver thoughts wUl be o'ercast, And biend their hues with some deep woe, Which darkens half our life below. lore. THE SAQUENAY. The stately bark glides on her way, Once more adieu, dark Saguenav. Montreal, 1st September, 18G0. 31 and. w. ace. )e.