The Exclusion Of Asiatics.

Is our renown'd Dominion then so small
As not to hold this new inhabitant?
Or are her means so pitiably scant
As not to yield a livelihood to all?
Or are we lesser men, foredoom'd to thrall?
Or so much better than the immigrant
That we should make our hearts as adamant
And guard against defilement with a wall?

Nay, but our land is large and rich enough
For us and ours and millions more - her need
    Is working men; she cries to let them in.
Nor can we fear; our race is not the stuff
Servants are made of, but a royal seed,
    And Christian, owning all mankind as kin.

W. M. MacKeracher

W. M. MacKeracher was a poet known for his contributions to Canadian literature during the early 20th century. His works often focused on themes of nature, human emotion, and the simplicity of rural life. Though not as widely known as some of his contemporaries, MacKeracher's poetry has been appreciated for its lyrical quality and depth. Much of his work was published in regional journals and anthologies, capturing the essence of Canadian landscapes and the human experience within them. His exact birth and death dates remain obscure.

W. M. MacKeracher

A Parting.

W. M. MacKeracher, Simple Poetry

Veni, Vidi, Victus sum.

W. M. MacKeracher, Simple Poetry

A Parody

W. M. MacKeracher, Simple Poetry

On Moving Into A New House.

W. M. MacKeracher, Simple Poetry

English

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The Quebec Exodus.

    Why should we leave the soil our fathers cleared,
        And lifelong tilled with patient, loving hands?
    Why should we leave the homes our fathers reared,
        And seek strange dwellings in unhallowed lands?
    Why should we leave the shrines where they revered
        Their guardian God, and break the golden bands
    That bind us to the ashes of our sires,
    Their haunts, their hearthstones and their altar-fires?

    Is it that now no longer from our doors
        The forest stretches with its gloom profound?
    That they who first set foot upon these shores
        Increase and multiply and hedge us round,
    Co-heritors of the exhaustless stores
        Of natural wealth that more and more abound? -
    Because of brethren of a differing speec...

W. M. MacKeracher

The Immigrants.

From lands where old abuses sit entrenched
And stern restriction thwarts aspiring merit,
And by gaunt men a meagre dole is wrenched
From the unkind conditions they inherit;
From teeming cities where the ceaseless moan
Of want is burthen to the traffic's hum,
From shrouded mills, and fields they ne'er might own,
From servitude and blank despair, they come.

And every ship that sails across the foam,
And every train that rushes from the sea,
And every sun that brightens heaven's dome,
And every breeze that stirs the leafing tree,
Sings to the pilgrims a glad song of home,
With freedom, joy and opportunity.

W. M. MacKeracher

The Nations Peril.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
--Goldsmith.


I fear the palace of the rich,
    I fear the hovel of the poor;
Though fortified by moat and ditch,
    The castle strong could not endure;
Nor can the squalid hovel be
    A source of strength, and those who cause
This widening discrepancy
    Infringe on God's eternal laws.

The heritage of man, the earth,
    Was framed for homes, not vast estates;
A lowering scale of human worth
    Each generation demonstrates,
Which feels the landlord's iron hand,
    And hopeless, plod with effort brave;
Who love no home can love no land;
    These own no home, until the grave.

The nation's strongest safeguards lie
In free...

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Canada's Resources.

        Small Scotland nobly held its own
        Against the might of England's throne,
        And shall this land with its vast bounds
        Shrink with fear ere the trumpet sounds.

        While British blood doth course each vein,
        Proudly this heritage maintain,
        With fertile acres by the billions,
        Future homes for two hundred millions.

        Each son could have a fertile farm,
        Brave men who ne'er will feel alarm,
        And they have both the nerve and skill
        To work land with a right good will.

        And she has got within her shores
        Renowned mines of many ores,
        While her furnaces and forges
        Iron in useful shape disgorges.

        Her mighty forests they do yiel...

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Canadian-Born.

    Although I'm not unduly proud,
        Inordinately vain,
    But humble, as will be allowed,
        And modest in the main;
    I must confess to pride of birth,
        And all detractors warn
    To let alone one land on earth:
        I am Canadian-born.

    In one respect I fill the bill
        As well as any man
    Between Vancouver and Brazil,
        Morocco and Japan.
    From Hobart Town to Hammerfest,
        From Greenland to the Horn,
    My native land is much the best:
        I am Canadian-born.

    The Greeks beside their Hellespont
        Thought all but they were scum;
    The Latins loved the classic vaunt,
        "Civis Romanus sum."
    I'm not so impudent as they
        To hold the world in ...

W. M. MacKeracher

Et Dona Ferentes

In extended observation of the ways and works of man,
From the Four-mile Radius roughly to the Plains of Hindustan:
I have drunk with mixed assemblies, seen the racial ruction rise,
And the men of half Creation damning half Creation's eyes.

I have watched them in their tantrums, all that Pentecostal crew,
French, Italian, Arab, Spaniard, Dutch and Greek, and Russ and Jew,
Celt and savage, buff and ochre, cream and yellow, mauve and white,
But it never really mattered till the English grew polite;

Till the men with polished toppers, till the men in long frock-coats,
Till the men who do not duel, till the men who war with votes,
Till the breed that take their pleasures as Saint Lawrence took his grid,
Began to "beg your pardon" and-the knowing croupier hid.

Then t...

Rudyard