1884; revised 1889
Watch Maja Bannerman perform St. Catharines
St. Catharines, famed for mineral waters
And for the beauty of her daughters,
For some do worship at the shrines
Of the fair St. Catharines.
St. Catharines, your greatness you inherit
From the genius of a Merritt,
You still would be a village dreary
But for this canal from Lake Erie.
For on its bosom there doth float
Full many a ship and steamboat,
Brings world’s commerce to your doors
And many gifts on you it pours.
Amongst its many great rewards
It gives you dry docks and ship yards,
To drive your mills, great water power
It doth give you as a dower.
Since we above lines did compose,
Through new canal vast stream it flows,
The lock gates at the hill at Thorold
Can not be equaled in the world.
McIntyre’s original poem was published in 1884. The final stanza appearing here was added to the poem in his book, Poems of James McIntyre, published in 1889. This reflects the fact that the Third Welland Canal had opened during the intervening period.
Source: Poems of James McIntyre. Ingersoll: The Chronicle, 1889, 53. Originally published in Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames… by James McIntyre. Ingersoll, Ont.:
The “Tribune” Printing House, 1884, 18.
Published in Spirit of the Big Ditch: The Story of the Welland Canals in Pictures, Poems and Songs. Compiled, edited and annotated by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor. St. Catharines: The Historical Society of St. Catharines, 2024
The Historical Society of St. Catharines 