The Song of the Exile

A disappointed lover watches England's coast recede after a proud baronet refuses him permission to marry his daughter. The speaker, an author, carries the memory of their farewell into the Canadian setting of Wilfred S. Skeats's narrative poem. Personal grief opens into reflections on national loyalty, Christian faith and the relationship between Britain and Canada. The volume places this five-canto epic alongside a section called Visions and a group of shorter poems.

In the Canadian passages, the speaker recalls fighting at Queenston Heights and the deaths of Brock and Macdonell, then turns toward reconciliation with America. His walk along the river leads toward the falls, where landscape prompts a sense of spiritual awe. Readers interested in Canadian verse can follow the poem's movement between private feeling, patriotic history and religious conviction. Its strongly British outlook also gives a clear sense of the political loyalties expressed in these pages.