Featuring Duncan Campbell Scott (The Half-Breed Girl)

The Half-Breed Girl



1She is free of the trap and the paddle,
2    The portage and the trail,
3But something behind her savage life
4    Shines like a fragile veil.
5Her dreams are undiscovered,
6    Shadows trouble her breast,
7When the time for resting cometh
8    Then least is she at rest.
9Oft in the morns of winter,
10    When she visits the rabbit snares,
11An appearance floats in the crystal air
12    Beyond the balsam firs.
13Oft in the summer mornings
14    When she strips the nets of fish,
15The smell of the dripping net-twine
16    Gives to her heart a wish.
17But she cannot learn the meaning
18    Of the shadows in her soul,
19The lights that break and gather,
20    The clouds that part and roll,
21The reek of rock-built cities,
22    Where her fathers dwelt of yore,
23The gleam of loch and shealing,
24    The mist on the moor,
25Frail traces of kindred kindness,
26    Of feud by hill and strand,
27The heritage of an age-long life
28    In a legendary land.
29She wakes in the stifling wigwam,
30    Where the air is heavy and wild,
31She fears for something or nothing
32    With the heart of a frightened child.
33She sees the stars turn slowly
34    Past the tangle of the poles,
35Through the smoke of the dying embers,
36    Like the eyes of dead souls.
37Her heart is shaken with longing
38    For the strange, still years,
39For what she knows and knows not,
40    For the wells of ancient tears.
41A voice calls from the rapids,
42    Deep, careless and free,
43A voice that is larger than her life
44    Or than her death shall be.
45She covers her face with her blanket,
46    Her fierce soul hates her breath,
47As it cries with a sudden passion
48    For life or death.