i8 The Kuan's Canticles

Robert Kirkland Kernighan 1854 (Canada) – 1926



I hush the wail along my trail
Past hamlet, home and hollow,

While on I go with noiseless flow
And robin red-breasts follow.

And like a psalm, benign and calm,

I blight the brow of winter ;
I snap the chains that hold the reins

The fields of ice I splinter ;
And like the tide I run and ride,

The bated winds I swallow ;
Triumphant still past rock and rill,

And robin red-breasts follow.

A wing of light from night to night

My perfumed chariot passes,
And I can hear in meadows clear

The whispering of the grasses ;
With joyous face I onward race

Past hopeless height and hollow,
While swift and strong with simple song

My robin red-breasts follow.

The north wind bleeds the rustling reeds

The happy news is telling,
And I can hear in forests near

The juicy leaf -buds swelling ;
I onward rush without the thrush,

The red bird or the swallow,
You need n't mind, for close behind

My robin red-breasts follow.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

50 sec read
105

Quick analysis:

Scheme xa aA x bx bx ax A x cd cx ax A x ed ex ax A
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 915
Words 168
Stanzas 17
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1

Robert Kirkland Kernighan

Robert Kirkland Kernighan was a Canadian poet, journalist, and farmer. Born at Rushdale Farm, Rockton, Ontario, he apprenticed as a journalist on the Hamilton Spectator staff. In about 1876 the paper printed his first poetry. Kernighan lived in Western Canada for a while working for the Winnipeg Sun. Short thereafter returned to Hamilton to farm. He worked exclusively for many years for the Toronto Telegram writing a column titled, "The Khan's Corner." The nickname "Khan" was given to him by a young French-Canadian woman who could not pronounce his name. It was the opinion of Sir John A. Macdonald that if Canada ever went to war the soldiers would march to battle singing Kernighan's poem "The Men of the Northern Zone". In an article reviewing personalities from Hamilton history, Kernighan was praised as a "...poet and humourist with a rare gift of sympathetic portrayal of rural Canadian life." The Khan appeared in Toronto at old Albert Hall on October 20th, 1885 to a packed house. Toronto's Daily Amusement Record reported: "Albert Hall was jammed to the door, and many had to stand. This, more than anything else, is a substantial compliment to Mr. Kernighan, as the people of Toronto are not in the habit of throwing away fifty-cent pieces 'just for fun'." Kernighan's lecture was attended by notable local personalities who were described in the Amusement Record as the "Fourth Estate". The reviewer concluded: "The lecture was a masterpiece of native eloquence, humour and pathos, and the only fault found was that it was too short." more…

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