On this day of celebrating our nation, I am thinking about Tekahionwake, a.k.a. Pauline Johnson, who grew up a short drive from where I did. Tekahionwake was a Canadian writer and performer popular in the late 19th century. She was known for her poems and performances marking her First Nations heritage; her father was a Mohawk chief of mixed ancestry, and her mother an English immigrant. During her childhood, her home at Chiefswood in Brantford was visited by many notables of the age, inventor Alexander Graham Bell, painter Homer Watson and vice-regal Lord Dufferin. Her clever acrostic poem about our home and native land always makes me smile.
CANADA (ACROSTIC)
By Tekahionwake (E. Pauline Johnson)
Crown of her, young Vancouver; crest of her, old Quebec;
Atlantic and far Pacific sweeping her, keel to deck.
North of her, ice and arctics; southward a rival's stealth;
Aloft, her Empire's pennant; below, her nation's wealth.
Daughter of men and markets, bearing within her hold,
Appraised at highest value, cargoes of grain and gold.
CANADA (ACROSTIC)
By Tekahionwake (E. Pauline Johnson)
Crown of her, young Vancouver; crest of her, old Quebec;
Atlantic and far Pacific sweeping her, keel to deck.
North of her, ice and arctics; southward a rival's stealth;
Aloft, her Empire's pennant; below, her nation's wealth.
Daughter of men and markets, bearing within her hold,
Appraised at highest value, cargoes of grain and gold.
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