Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute - Acta Nostra Yearbook (Guelph, Ontario Canada)

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.- g.f,xs3lsg ,R ' wg ls.: 41- 39 about their lives. Not mitch is written abottt them except the years of their lives and the places where they lived. One of the best of them all was Norman Guthrie who wrote under the pen-name 'john Crichton'. He was at great-uncle of Hugh Guthrie of our school. Norman Guthrie was born in Guelph and attended the Collegiate Institute after which he went to Osgoode Hall and became a lawyer in 1902. He worked for a short while with his father on Douglas Street bitt soon found an opening in Ottawa and became a very successful figure in the capital. By 1928 he had published no less than three volumes of poetry all of which received praise front the public and from literary critics. His poetry had a new and intimate quality somewhat different to the usual forest-stream and mountain verses common to other writers of the beginning of the century. He let nature speak and thus did not describe beauty from the outside. He experimented with unusual metrical arrangements and made his litres hit the mind with vigorous feeling. His lyric poem, RED TRILLIUBIH illustrates this direct. musical simplicity. Blood red Trillium in a pocket Of pine needles crisp and dead II'hat a pity that she crushed you With the pressure of her head. She is kind: she would have spared you Had she known that you were there. But, you perished like a lover II'ilh your red lips i ll her hair! In the early days of person on the streets was in the city and in Paisley tending for several miles Guelph every other a Scotchman. Both Block, a district ex- to the west of the town. families from many paI'lS of Scotland kept alive the memories of the old land and added new songs to the circle of their friends and acquaintances. One of these pioneers was Robert Boyd. Boyd catne to Canada from Ayrshire in 1830 and died in Guelph fifty years later. He was known in every house inutlie Paisley Block and his verses. written in Scotch dialect, were often read at the fireside socials in the wintet evenings in the country. All his poems have a certain sadness or homesickness about them. ln some ways he resembles Bttrns as, for ex- ample. in his THE BACHELOR IN HIS SHANTYH: 'Tis something strange a chiel like me Should frae his native country flee, And leave his freen 0' social 'glee- .-lnd loves sae dear, :Ind cross the braid Atlantic sea In quest o' gear. He had the reputation of being a local scholar and wrote with superb diction. Re- membering his voyage to the new land he wrote a tribute to the St. Lawrence River which came from his heart and shows his powers of expression. l. St. Lawrence! greatest chief of slrean1s.' Long is thy course, thy channel wide. Surpassilig far the poet's dreams, ll'here countless ships in triumph ride. 9. .intl still incessant thou shall run. Till time itself shall tease to lie, To where thy' waters all have gone- Thy rest suhlime-the witle saul sea. Another ol the Scottish bartls. George ie, cznne from Aberdeen early in the eigh- teenth century. He was a journalist and pub- lisher in the early days of Guelph, having op erated the Guelph Herald for ovct twenty years. Wm. Lyon hl2lClxCllllC, a fellow-Scot although opposed to him in politics, said oi hilu that there was no abler writer in Canada, A staunch lllf2,'lll2lIlClC1'. he was secretary of the local St. Andrevy's Society for twenty-one years and loved to write on the beauty ol' Scotland. Although many of his poems are rather heavy in rhyme. he occasionally' becomes quite iav be seen in one of his later THE FORGET-NIE-NO'l ' written be- poetu is one of Scottish dialect. l'it sprightlv as n poems fore his the few death in 1870. This written outside his THE FORCiliT-.UI-I-N0 T This little flower with azure eye, You love it, lady. tell nie why: It seems to me nor rich nor rare, It hreathes no fragrance on the air, or splendid form nor colors hright, A7 illav' give it value in your sight. If not for perfume nor for show, Pray tell tilt' why you love it so. It is not rich, it is not rare, This little flower-yet. ah, how fair. Though it no merit else :nay rlrtirn Iiut this, 'the magic of a narne'. liarh tiny leaf into my ear Is hreathing nantes to rnernory clear: The cleacl. the ahsent, the forgot. .lie whispering here. lftJ7'g't'f-II1t 'I1tIf.,' Few Guelph men have done more to en- courage everything Scottish than Thomas Laid- law. Another member of the Paisley Block cultural group, he came to this vicinity when the community was but four years old. He and Guelph grew up together. He was named the hard of St. Andrew's Society and was later its President. Although he fottnd his pen flowed more easily in prose, he liked to dwell in poetry upon the smell of the heather far. far away. 'sind out from the stream and lreyonfl the thatched roofs The kirk of our fathers appears, 'Tis the auld parish kirk, looking grey through the mirk 'Ind embalnzed with the nzernories of years.

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40 ' X X 'G . The one Guelph poet who has attained a degree of fame outside Canada is john McCrae. the attthor of 'In Flanders Fields'. YVhile this poem has proved the most popular of his ver- ses he has written others of even greater beauty. He wrote in varied metre but chiefly excelled in the rondeau. A selection of twenty- nine of his best poems was preserved and edited by Sir Andrew McPhail who did much to encourage McCrae in his writing. john Mcflrae was not only a fine! poet brit also a distinguished doctor who lor. many years was on the staff of McGill University. He was born in Guelph on November 30th, 1872, near the Ontario Agricultural College. His father, a successful cattleebreeder and .il man interested in all the finer arts of life. catne originally to the Paisley Block with his brother. The elder McCrae, father of the poet. wrote widely in the agricultural journals and the son catue by his gifts naturally. Col. john McCrae was a gold medallist of McGill bm- versity and had studied abroad before he went to the Boer War. He was the intimate friend of many people in high places and was a gifted story-teller. The Governor-.General appointed him as his honorary physician and they shared each other's company on many hunting trips in Canada's bushland.A Some time before the poet died in France of double pneumonia, he had published his immortal poem in Punch. It was immediately appreciated and it seemed to come at a time when the pttblic longed to see solnething come out of the war which would mean a better world for the surviving heroes. His great poem is so well known that it needs no quotation in Guelph. Perhaps a reference to his EYENTIDE would seem tnore fitting to show his breadth of interests. This poem was written in Dr. H. O. Howitt's resi- dence, where McCrae frequently stayed on his recurring yisits to the place of his birth. He was looking up YVoolwich Street at the close of the day watching the people going home from their shops and offices, The big bay window is still present but the poem will outlive the house. EVENTIDE The day is past and the toilers ceaseg The land grows dim 'nzid the shadows grey, .find hearts are glad, for the dark brings peace At the close of day. Each weary toiler, with lingering pace As he honleward turns, with the long day J done, Looks out to the west, with the light on his face Of the setting sun. Yet some see not twith their sin-dimmed eyesj The promise of rest in the fading lightg But the clouds loom dark in the angry skies At the fall of night. And some see only a golden sky Il'here the elnts their welcoming arms stretch wide, To the falling rooks, as they hovneward fly, .-lt the eventide. It speaks of peace that comes after strife, Of the rest He sends to the hearts He tried, Of the calm that follows the storniiest life- Gocl's Eventidef' Two of Guelplrs most worthy poets were women: Laura Lemon and Anne Sutherland. Laura Lemon grew up in Ashcote, 141 Queen St.. West, where we happen to live at the present time. This Christmas, while my mother was sitting in front of the hearth a card fell out from the mantel and on it was the name Laura Lemon with the date 1875. She was only nine years old at the time and the card was apparently from her father or brother-the writing being dim with soot and age. She was destined to be a poet, song- writer and musician. She composed the music for her own poems and always signed the words with a nom-de-plume. This, she did. because she felt that the public would appreciate a work which had the minds of two people col- laborating, more than a single effort. Many people in Guelph still remember Miss Lemon well although she later moved to England with her family. Her finest song was, of course. My Ain Folk . In discussing her work with Mrs. Norman XVallace. who has a collection of her songs, we found that the Canadian song or lullaby, My Little Papoosef' was also written and composed by her. Sleep, my little Papoose The sun is round and retl And the whip-floor-will in the wood sings forth, Ilhile the birds are going to bed. Thy mocassins with their glowing beads, :Ire hanging 'nvath the tree. .lnll thy father dries the wolf-skins grey For a winfer mat for thee. W Sleep, my little Pajioosef' Anne Sutherland is the best of our Guelph poets still living. She was born in 1900, the daughter of John Sutherland of the Insurance Company. and like the rest of us went to the Gttelph Collegiate Institute. On matriculating she trained as a school teacher and received an appointment at Blair, Ontario. Here she produced some of her best work as a poet of childhood songs. Much of her work is like A. A. Milnes but in one or two of her verses I think she is even better. Her work attracted nide attention and she was invited to work at one of Toronto's radio stations broadcasting for the childrens hour at the time when radio was just beginning to widen its program to take in cultural subjects. She married the Rev. Arnold Brooks and is now living at Grimsby. While her skill as a childrens poet has brought her most of her rewards, it should not be for- gotten that she wrote on varied subjects and deeper moods.