At Minas Basin and Other Poems — Silas Tertius Rand

SILAS TERTIUS RAND.

Oft did thy spell enthrall me, spite the cost!

Thou brought'st a charmed and fadeless holiday-- Stories and songs and Indian epic lay-- Whene'er thy eager step the threshold crost.

Imagination all its plumes uptost To follow where thy spirit led the way!

-- (The sense that thou saw'st God when thou didst pray I never through the dimming years have lost.

) Fair Minas' shores thy step did gladden, too!

Thou charm'dst great Glooscap from the unlettered past, And told'st his story to the listener nigh'st;

Ay, lover of song, of learnëd lore and vast, Thou lov'dst the Indian with a love so true, In his sweet tongue thou gavest him the Christ.