While, Lady of the silvered lakes— Chaste goddess of the sweet, still shrine The jocund river fitful makes By sudden, deep gloomed brakes— Close sheltered by close warp and woof of vine, Spilling a shadow gloomy—rich as wine Into the silver throne where thou dost sit, Thy silken leaves all dusky round thee knit! Mild Soul of the unsalted wave, White bosom holding golden fire, Deep as some ocean-hidden cave Are fixed the roots of thy desire, Thro’ limpid currents stealing up. And rounding to the pearly cup. Thou dost desire, With all thy trembling heart of sinless fire, But to be filled With dew distilled From clear, fond skies that in their gloom Hold, floating high, thy sister moon, Pale chalice of a sweet perfume, Whiter-breasted than a dove, To thee the dew is—love! When, in 1884, Isabella Valancy Crawford’s unpretentious little volume of poems appeared, it won high praise from the critics of the London _Athenaeum_, _The Spectator_, _The Graphic_, and _The Illustrated London News_. They all noted that she had an excess of riches in fancy and in imagination, and a poetic style of her own which was distinguished both by beauty and exquisite artistry. In 1905 her poems were collected and edited by John W. Garvin, B.A., and published with a critical Introduction by Miss Ethelwyn Wetherald. This remains the definitive edition of the poetry of Isabella Valancy Crawford, whom Miss Wetherald describes as ‘a brilliant and fadeless figure in the annals of Canadian literary history.’ The Canadian Emigré writers in the Pre-Confederation period, are, then, to be appreciated by the literary historian as men and women who, first, drew attention to the fact that Canadian life and culture needed expression and, next, awoke in native-born sons and daughters of the Dominion the ambition to undertake this expression in verse and prose. We must, therefore, honor the earlier and later _émigré_ poets and prose writers of Canada, not for the intrinsic merit of their work, but for the fact that they engendered in the native-born the ideal of expressing the consciousness of a Canadian homeland and spirit in literature which should possess originality in substance, and beauty in form and in technical artistry. * * * * * The quotations from Isabella Valancy Crawford’s work in this chapter are from _The Collected Poems of Isabella Valancy Crawford_, edited by John W. Garvin, B.A., (Ryerson Press: Toronto). CHAPTER III Joseph Howe THE NATIVISTIC LITERATURE OF CANADA—JOSEPH HOWE AS FOUNDER OF THE INDEPENDENT PROSE, CREATIVE JOURNALISM, POLITICAL LITERATURE, LITERARY AND FORENSIC ORATORY—AS PATRIOTIC, DESCRIPTIVE, AND HUMOROUS POET—AND AS THE DISCOVERER AND SPONSOR OF THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON.