The Public Forum, October 4, 1952
The Religious Poetry of Ewen Lamont
I have in my possession, or rather in my memory, a somewhat lengthy poem composed about sixty years ago by Ewen Lamont on the prospect of his own death, and the retrospect of his life. The whole poem is, I judge, too long for inclusion with this article in your columns, but I am submitting an abridged version of it, which you may, if you wish publish, instead of the whole poem. The poem was set to one of those beautifully plaintive airs to which I have already referred, and in it's abridged form as follows:
"My time draws near to bid goodby to this poor vale of tears,
Wherein a sojourner I've been for almost eighty years:
The evening comes with quickening haste, it's shadows stretch and veer,
Foretelling of my final rest from all my labours here.
My wrestlings here will soon be o'er, my race is almost run,
And then farewell forever more to all beneath the Sun.
I've learned that men will search in vain for bliss in things below,
This world is a wilderness of pain, a gloomy vale of woe.
When retrospectively I glance at what I witnessed here,
Remembered scenes my mind entrance - they seem to reappear:
I've seen dominions great and small appear, and pass away,
Estates and empires rise and fall as creatures of a day.
I've seen extensive forest lands where bears and foxes ranged,
By men of strong and skillful hands to thriving hamlets changed:
And some I've known, now aged grown, young infants on the knees,
As tender saplings I have known, yon tall and stately trees.
Since man's expulsion from his place on Eden's hallowed ground
No man of Adam's fallen race thereto an entrance found.
Then why should I reflect on that which I may see no more?
Should I not rather think of what the future has in store?
Ye comrades of my early days, I fain would interview:
In crowded marts, or lonely ways, I vainly look for you.
Is yours a brighter sphere than this, a more congenial clime,
Do you enjoy the promised bliss beyond the verge of time?
But I must patiently await the Lord's appointed time.
Then let me look with mind intent on things not seen yet true,
Until I quit this tenement, and bid the world adieu.
- Ewen Lamont.
I am, Sir, etc.,
M. Mackenzie, Canoe Cove, PEI.