View source for The Athabasca Trail

''The Athabasca Trail'' is a poem written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] on 18 june 1914, first published in [[The Gazette (Montreal)]] on 2 july 1914, and collected in [[The Guards Came Through and Other Poems]] on 16 december 1919.


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== Editions ==

* in ''[[The Gazette (Montreal)]]'' (2 july 1914 [CA])
* in ''[[The Cornish Telegraph]]'' (30 july 1914 [UK])
* in ''[[The Cornhill Magazine]]'' (april 1915 [UK])
* in ''[[The Guards Came Through and Other Poems]]'' (16 december 1919, [[John Murray]] [UK])
* in ''[[The Guards Came Through and Other Poems]]'' (1920, [[George H. Doran Co.]] [US])
* in ''[[Canadian National Railways Magazine]]'' (july 1923 [CA]) as ''The Athabaska Trail''


== The Athabasca Trail ==
[[File:the-gazette-montreal-1914-07-02-p9-the-athabasca-trail.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The Athabasca Trail<br />([[The Gazette (Montreal)]], 2 july 1914)]]

My life is gliding downwards; It speeds swifter to the day<br />
When it shoots the last dark canon to the Plains of Far-away,<br />
But while its stream is running through the years that are to be,<br />
The mighty voice of Canada will ever call to me.<br />
I shall hear the roar of rivers where the rapids foam and tear,<br />
I shall smell the virgin upland with its balsam-laden air,<br />
And shall dream that I am riding down the winding woody vale,<br />
With the packer and the packhorse on the Athabasca Trail.


I have passed the warden cities at the Eastern water-gate,<br />
Where the hero and the martyr laid the corner stone of State,<br />
The habitant, coureur-des-bois — and hardy voyageur,<br />
Where lives a breed more strong at need to venture or endure?<br />
I have seen the gorge of Erie where the roaring waters run,<br />
I have crossed the Inland Ocean, lying golden in the sun,<br />
But the last and best and sweetest is the ride by hill and dale,<br />
With the packer and the packhorse on the Athabasca Trail.


I'll dream again of fields of grain that stretch from sky to sky,<br />
And the little prairie hamlets where the cars go roaring by,<br />
Wooden hamlets as I saw them — noble cities still to be<br />
To girdle stately Canada with gems from sea to sea;<br />
Mother of a mighty manhood, Land of glamour and of hope,<br />
From the eastward sea-swept Islands to the sunny western slope,<br />
Ever more my heart is with you, ever more till life shall fail,<br />
I'll be out with pack and packer on the Athabasca Trail.


June 18th, 1914<br />
Arthur Conan Doyle.








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* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Complete Works|Back to Complete Works]]
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Back to Conan Doyle]]