Classic Poem

The waters reach, in the white north land,
Stream arms to a thousand plains;
The sheer banks stand
With stern command
To keep a course to the lonely strand
Where beauty in silence reigns.

Athabasca gleams like a thread of light
Dropt lazily 'twixt her walls.
The moon by night
Builds a bridge of white
Where elfins dance on the ripples bright
And the lure of the northland calls.

The river blends, in a movement vast,
Great floods from the hills afar;
The plains all past,
The waves at last
Are shepherded in their fold so fast
Where the emerald waters are.

Maniboza bright bids his north winds hew
Through the churning seas a way,
That the Manitou,
In ice canoe
With icicle oar, to the sun's igloo,
May go to awaken the day.

The northern sea all flame-lit lies
When the long, long night is done;
The darkness dies
From the midnight skies
When Mana, the light-god, open pries
The gates of the truant sun.