Re-voyage



What of the days when we two dreamed together?
 Days marvellously fair,
As lightsome as a skyward floating feather
 Sailing on summer air--
Summer, summer, that came drifting through
Fate's hand to me, to you.

What of the days, my dear? I sometimes wonder
 If you too wish this sky
Could be the blue we sailed so softly under,
 In that sun-kissed July;
Sailed in the warm and yellow afternoon,
With hearts in touch and tune.

Have you no longing to re-live the dreaming,
 Adrift in my canoe?
To watch my paddle blade all wet and gleaming
 Cleaving the waters through?
To lie wind-blown and wave-caressed, until
Your restless pulse grows still?

Do you not long to listen to the purling
 Of foam athwart the keel?
To hear the nearing rapids softly swirling
 Among their stones, to feel
The boat's unsteady tremor as it braves
The wild and snarling waves?

What need of question, what of your replying?
 Oh! well I know that you
Would toss the world away to be but lying
 Again in my canoe,
In listless indolence entranced and lost,
Wave-rocked, and passion tossed.

Ah me! my paddle failed me in the steering
 Across love's shoreless seas;
All reckless, I had ne'er a thought of fearing
 Such dreary days as these,
When through the self-same rapids we dash by,
My lone canoe and I.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

1:09 min read
165

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCC ADADEE FCFCGG DHFHII FCFCJJ FKFKDD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,284
Words 229
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

Emily Pauline Johnson

Emily Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake commonly known as E Pauline Johnson or just Pauline Johnson was a Canadian writer and performer popular in the late 19th century Pauline Johnson was notable for her poems and performances that celebrated her aboriginal heritage One such poem is the frequently anthologized The Song My Paddle Sings Her poetry was published in Canada the United States and Great Britain Johnson was one of a generation of widely read writers who began to define a Canadian national literature more…

All Emily Pauline Johnson poems | Emily Pauline Johnson Books

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