Isabel Ecclestone Mackay Poems >>
The Gatekeeper

THE sunlight falls on old Quebec,
 A city framed of rose and gold,
An ancient gem more beautiful
 In that its beauty waxes old.
O Pearl of Cities! I would set
 You higher in our diadem,
And higher yet and higher yet,
 That generations still to be
 May kindle at your history!

'Twas here that gallant Champlain stood
 And gazed upon this mighty stream,
These towering rock-walls, buttressed high--
 A gateway to a land of dream;
And all his silent men stood near
 While the great fleur-de-lis fell free,
(Too awe-struck they to raise a cheer)
 And while the shining folds outspread
 The sunset burned a sudden red.

Here paced the haughty Frontenac,
 His great heart torn with pride and pain,
His clear eye dimming as it swept
 The land he might not see again,
This infant world, this strange New France
 Dropped down as by some vagrant wind
Upon the New World's vast expanse,
 Threatened yet safe! Through storm and stress
 Time's challenge to the wilderness.

Here, when to ease her tangled skein
 Fate cut her threads and formed anew
The pattern of the thing she planned
 And red war slipped the shuttle through,
Montcalm met Wolfe! The bitter strife
 Of flag and flag was ended here--
And every man who gave his life
 Gave it that now one flag may wave,
 One nation rise upon his grave!

The twilight falls on old Quebec
 And in the purple shines a star,
And on her citadel lies peace
 More powerful than armies are.
O fair dream city! Ebb and flow
 Of race feuds vex no more your walls.
Can they of old see this? and know
 That, even as they dreamed, you stand
 Gatekeeper of a peace-filled land!