CANADA AND OTHER POEMS.

BY

T. F. YOUNG.


PREFACE.

I introduce the following poetical attempts to the public, with great
diffidence. I am not sure but a direct apology would be in better taste,
but the strength derived from the purpose I had in view, in writing and
publishing them, sustains me without saying anything further by way of
excuse. Like Burns, I wished to do something for my country, and chose
this method of doing it.

The literature of this country is in its infancy. It must not always
remain so, or the expectations we have in regard to making it a great
nation, will never be fulfilled. Literature gives life to a nation, or
rather it is the reflection of a nation's life and thought, in a mirror,
which cheers, strengthens and ennobles those who look into it, and study
what is there displayed. Literature must grow with our nation, and, when
growing, it will aid the latter's progress in no small degree.

Pedantic critics may find fault with my modest productions, and perhaps
justly, in regard to grammatical construction, and mechanical
arrangement, but I shall be satisfied, if the public discern a vein of
true poetry glittering here and there through what I have just written.
The public are the final judges of compositions of this sort, and not
the writer himself, or his personal friends. It is they, therefore, who