29 November 1924
Listen to Twilight on the Tow Path performed by Louise Waldie
I’m a-sitting by the tow-path
Of the days of long ago,
Where the long, green grass is growing
And the ox-eye daisies blow,
And I see a fading vision,
‘Gainst the sun’s last westward glow,
Of the schooners and the horses
In the days I used to know.
Big-boned horses, drooping, weary,
As they drew the tow-line taut;
Idle sailors, singing, cheery,
Lounging where the decks are hot;
Trudging tow-boys, cracking whips,
Cursing when a tow-horse slips;
And the rattling, rustling, creaking
Of the gear upon the ships.
Little schooners with their lumber,
Going down the narrow ditch,
Out of Michigan and Huron
Bringing ashes, staves and pitch;
All the forests of the inland
Floating seaward, hour by hour,
Making way for farms and millers
To send down their wheat and flour.
And the immigrants go upward,
Irish, Scot, and Norse and Swede,
Looking to the land of promise
Where hard work is all they need
For the carving of a future
And the foundation of a race,
Facing westward, keen and eager,
To their new, free dwelling-place.
But the sailing ships have vanished,
And the tow-path sod is green,
Gone are horses, whips and shoutings,
Giving place to steel and steam,
Rusty plates and smoke and smother,
Sixteen hatchways in a row,
And a welkin-splitting clamor
That pursues me as I go.
I have seen as rare a vision
As the ancient prophets saw,
I have seen mankind in action
Working out the ancient law;—
“You shall all this earth replenish
And subdue its every sod,”—
’Tis mankind that builds our nation
But the architect is God.
Source: The St. Catharines Standard, 29 November 1924, 1; reprinted in The Globe [Toronto], 2 December 1924, 5. Also published in: Kevin McCabe [ed.], The Poetry of Old Niagara. St. Catharines: Blarney Stone Books, 1999, 54-55.
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 