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Thursday, July 1, 2021

To Canada / James Alexander Tucker


To Canada

Unlike all leaves or, stout or slender,
All flowers kiss'd by summer's breath –
Which die in shame – the Maple's splendor
Is greatest in her hour of death.

Dear country, should occasion call
Thy sons to die in Freedom's strife,
Like thine own maple emblem fall
More glorious ev'n in death than life.

~~
James Alexander Tucker (1872-1903)
from Poems, 1904

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Will Longstaff (1879-1953), Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, 1931. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

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