The Poetry Corner

The Sleeping Giant

By Emily Pauline Johnson

(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.