Thomas Campbell
As musings on Banks of Canadian Thames doth not necessarily consist of
meditations in verse, but the monotony of the cogitations may be relieved by a
soliloquy in prose, and as Campbell manifested a deep interest in American subjects,
we will give the following anecdote related by that genial American Author Washington
Irvine, to Sir Walter Scott. Irvine, while in Britian, visited Campbell, but found him absent
and he expressed a regret to Campbells wife that her husband did not write more. She said
that he was timid and he felt Byron and Scott o’ershadow him with their great poems. Sir
Walter replied, ‘ I myself produce pebbles, Scottish pebbles, but Campbell is the creator of
Diamonds of the first water.’ Byron also expressed himself in a similar strain as follows:-
‘Arise, O Campbell, give thy talents scope ;
Who dares aspire if thou has ceased to hope ’
Campbell wrote thus of America in the beginning of the century, and by comparing the facts
as he describes them it shows the wonderous strides which the United States, especially,
have taken on the Banks of Lake Erie, as Lake Ontario seems to be favorite location for
Canadian cities.
On Erie’s banks were tigers steal along,
And the dread Indian chaunts his dismal song.
Where human fiends their midnight errand walk ;
And bathe in brains the murderous tomehawk.
The poet then predicts that cities will there arise, but more wonderfully quick they have
arisen then poets pen ever imagined. The poet also imagines the time will come when the
fleecy flocks will be straying o’er the thymey pastures and the shepherds dancing at early
morn and dewy eve, but alas, these predictions have never been verified, for the lands on
Erie’s shores are too valuable for sheep walks, and it is no Arcadian bower where the
romance of the dreamy imaginations of the ancient philosophers are being enacted, but a
vigorous, intelligent, and industrious population have arisen, who have built villages,
towns and cities along its shores. But the foundation of the whole prosperity is the
intelligent, well directed industry of the farming population.
Their industry is not in vain,
For they have bounteous crops of grain,
And you behold on every field
Of grass and roots, abundant yield ;
But after all the greatest charm
Is the snug home upon the farm.
And stone walls now keep cattle warm,
The cold blast now doth them no harm.
