Welcome To Our Canadian Spring.

We welcome thy coming, bright, sunny Spring,
    To this snow-clad land of ours,
For sunshine and music surround thy steps,
    Thy pathway is strewn with flowers;
And vainly stern Winter, with brow of gloom,
    Attempted for awhile
To check thy coming - he had to bow
    To the might of thy sunny smile.

A touch of thy wand, and our streams and lakes
    Are freed from his tyrant sway,
And their clear blue depths in ripples of gold
    Reflect back the sun's bright ray;
Whilst e'en the rude rocks that their waters fret
    Put on mosses green and bright,
And silent, deep homage render up now,
    Sweet Spring, to thy magic might.

And what words could tell half the wond'rous change
    Thou mak'st in our forest bowers,
Replacing the snow with soft velvet sward,
    Cold crystals with glowing flowers;
Clothing the leafless, unsightly trees
    In rich garb of satin sheen,
And robing the meadows and woodlands wide
    In thine own soft tender green.

And the insect life that thy warm breath wakes
    Now people earth and air;
And the carolling birds have come back to dwell
    In the charms of thy presence fair.
Need we wonder all hearts with joyous beat
    Watch the changes thou dost bring,
And, with smiles of gladness, welcome thee
    To our land, bright, sunny Spring?

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon was a Canadian poet and novelist known for her contributions to Canadian literature in the 19th century. She wrote several novels and numerous poems, often focusing on themes of love, identity, and cultural conflicts. Leprohon's work is notable for its exploration of Canadian identity and bilingual heritage as she wrote in both English and French.

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

The Blind Man Of Jericho.

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, Simple Poetry

Our Mountain Cemetery.

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, Simple Poetry

A Modern Courtship.

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, Simple Poetry

The Old Towers Of Mount Royal Or Ville Marie.

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

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Winter In Canada.

Nay tell me not that, with shivering fear,
You shrink from the thought of wintering here;
That the cold intense of our winter-time
Is severe as that of Siberian clime,
And, if wishes could waft you across the sea,
You, to-night, in your English home would be.

Remember, no hedges there now are bright
With verdure, or blossoms of hawthorn white;
In damp, sodden fields or bare garden beds
No daisies or cowslips show their heads;
Whilst chill winds and skies of gloomy hue
Tell in England, as elsewhere, 'tis winter too.

Away with dull thoughts! Raise your brooding eyes
To yonder unclouded azure skies;
Look round on the earth, robed in bridal white,
All glittering and flashing with diamonds bright,
While o'er head, her lover and lord, the sun,
Shine...

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

To Spring

Fairest and loveliest of the sun-born train
That o'er the varying year alternate reign;
Whose eye, soft-beaming with thy father's fire,
Fond Nature woos with ever-fresh desire,
Enchanting Spring! O let thy votary's lay
Invite thy angel smile, thy genial sway!

Still do thy beauties, to my partial heart,
Whene'er I gaze, superior joys impart:
When winter's cloudy veil thou draw'st away                            }
And, vested with the sun's mild, dewy ray,                            }
First to the longing earth thy charms thou dost display; }
Or when Aurora, to the lark's gay song,
Full of thy spirit, lightly trips along;
With joyful kisses greets the first-born flowers,
And o'er them breathes thy warm, refreshing showers;
Or when, on shadowy pillow in the west...

Thomas Oldham

Spring

Et nunc omnis ager, mine omms parturit arbos;
Nunc frondent sylvæ, nunc formostssimus annus.
Virgil.

Delightful harbinger of joys to come,
Of summer's verdure and a fruitful year,
Who bids thee o'er our northern snow-fields roam,
And make all gladness in thy bright career?
Lo from the Indian Isle thou dost appear,
And dost a thousand pleasures with thee bring:
But why to us art thou so ever dear?
Bearest thou the hope upon thy radiant wing
Of Immortality, O soft, celestial Spring?

Yea, buds and flowers that fade not, they are thine,
And youth-renewing balms; the sear and old
Are young and gladsome at thy touch divine.
Thou breath'st upon the frozen earth behold,
Meadows and vales of grass and floral gold,
Green-covered hills and leafy m...

Hanford Lennox Gordon

A Canadian Snow-Fall.

Come to the casement, we'll watch the snow
Softly descending on earth below,
Fairer and whiter than spotless down
Or the pearls that gleam in a monarch's crown,
Clothing the earth in its robe's bright flow;
Is it not lovely - the pure white snow?

See, as it falls o'er the landscape wide,
How kindly it seeks all blots to hide,
Shrouding each black, unsightly nook,
The miry banks of the little brook,
Robing bare branches in ermine white,
Making all lovely, spotless and bright.

In the farm-yard see with what magic skill
Its marvels of beauty it works at will:
The well-house now is a fairy hall,
And the rough, rude fence is a marble wall;
While gates and hillocks where barn fowl ranged
To ramparts and bastions now are changed.

How softl...

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

Dandelions.

Welcome children of the Spring,
    In your garbs of green and gold,
Lifting up your sun-crowned heads
    On the verdant plain and wold.

As a bright and joyous troop
    From the breast of earth ye came
Fair and lovely are your cheeks,
    With sun-kisses all aflame.

In the dusty streets and lanes,
    Where the lowly children play,
There as gentle friends ye smile,
    Making brighter life's highway

Dewdrops and the morning sun,
    Weave your garments fair and bright,
And we welcome you to-day
    As the children of the light.

Children of the earth and sun.
    We are slow to understand
All the richness of the gifts
    Flowing from our Father's hand.


Were our vision clearer far,
    In this sin-d...

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Our Canadian Woods In Early Autumn.

I have passed the day 'mid the forest gay,
    In its gorgeous autumn dyes,
Its tints as bright and as fair to the sight
    As the hues of our sunset skies;
And the sun's glad rays veiled by golden haze,
    Streamed down 'neath its arches grand,
And with magic power made scene and hour
    Like a dream of Faerie Land.

The emerald sheen of the maple green
    Is turned to deep, rich red;
And the boughs entwine with the crimson vine
    That is climbing overhead;
While, like golden sheaves, the saffron leaves
    Of the sycamore strew the ground,
'Neath birches old, clad in shimmering gold,
    Or the ash with red berries crowned.

Stately and tall, o'er its sisters all,
    Stands the poplar, proud and lone,
Every silvery leaf in restless...

Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon