Emily Pauline Johnson

The Sleeping Giant

     (THUNDER BAY, LAKE SUPERIOR)

    When did you sink to your dreamless sleep
        Out there in your thunder bed?
    Where the tempests sweep,
    And the waters leap,
        And the storms rage overhead.

    Were you lying there on your couch alone
        Ere Egypt and Rome were born?
    Ere the Age of Stone,
    Or the world had known
        The Man with the Crown of Thorn.

    The winds screech down from the open west,
        And the thunders beat and break
    On the amethyst
    Of your rugged breast, -
        But you never arise or wake.

    You have locked your past, and you keep the key
        In your heart 'neath the westing sun,
    Where the mighty sea
    And its shores will be
        Storm-swept till the world is done.