Classic Poem

About this ancient earth-work and this wall,
Where rude spiked gates on heavy hinges hung,
The shouts of armies many a time have rung,
And thunderous cannon sounded loud o'er all.

Here, night and morn, the echoing bugle call
Close to the farthest wooded hill-tops clung,
Here with her lilies to the breezes flung,
France held Acadia in romantic thrall.

Here Bourbon nobles carved the fleur de lis,
And waved the white flag of the Bourbon kings;
Here Acadie's first convert, Membertou,
The aged Micmac chieftain, bent the knee
To Christ; and here on wide-expanded wings
The hostile fleets of British sovereigns flew.