The Half-Breed Girl

She is free of the trap and the paddle,

    The portage and the trail,

But something behind her savage life

    Shines like a fragile veil.

Her dreams are undiscovered,

    Shadows trouble her breast,

When the time for resting cometh

    Then least is she at rest.

Oft in the morns of winter,

   When she visits the rabbit snares,

An appearance floats in the crystal air

   Beyond the balsam firs.

Oft in the summer mornings

   When she strips the nets of fish,

The smell of the dripping net-twine

   Gives to her heart a wish.

But she cannot learn the meaning

   Of the shadows in her soul,

The lights that break and gather,

   The clouds that part and roll,

The reek of rock-built cities,

   Where her fathers dwelt of yore,

The gleam of loch and shealing,

   The mist on the moor,

Frail traces of kindred kindness,

   Of feud by hill and strand,

The heritage of an age-long life

   In a legendary land.

She wakes in the stifling wigwam,

   Where the air is heavy and wild,

She fears for something or nothing

   With the heart of a frightened child.

She sees the stars turn slowly

   Past the tangle of the poles,

Through the smoke of the dying embers,

   Like the eyes of dead souls.

Her heart is shaken with longing

   For the strange, still years,

For what she knows and knows not,

   For the wells of ancient tears.

A voice calls from the rapids,

   Deep, careless and free,

A voice that is larger than her life

   Or than her death shall be.

She covers her face with her blanket,

   Her fierce soul hates her breath,

As it cries with a sudden passion

   For life or death.

Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.The lyrical form of this poem is abcb.2. portage: the carrying of a canoe across land from one lake or river to another.23. loch: lake (Scottish). shealing: sheiling, pasture.29. wigwam: native hut made of wood poles, rushes, bark, hides, etc.