The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse
The Half-breed GirlDuncan Campbell Scott (18621947)
S
The portage and the trail,
But something behind her savage life
Shines like a fragile veil.
Shadows trouble her breast,
When the time for resting cometh
Then least is she at rest.
When she visits the rabbit snares,
An appearance floats in the crystal air
Beyond the balsam firs.
When she strips the nets of fish,
The smell of the dripping net-twine
Gives to her heart a wish.
Of the shadows in her soul,
The lights that break and gather,
The clouds that part and roll.
Where her fathers dwelt of yore,
The gleam of loch and shealing,
The mist on the moor,
Of feud by hill and strand,
The heritage of an age-long life
In a legendary land.
Where the air is heavy and wild,
She fears for something or nothing
With the heart of a frightened child.
Past the tangle of the poles,
Through the smoke of the dying embers,
Like the eyes of dead souls.
For the strange still years,
For what she knows and knows not,
For the wells of ancient tears.
Deep, careless, and free,
A voice that is larger than her life
Or than her death shall be.
Her fierce soul hates her breath,
As it cries with a sudden passion
For life or death.