Dark Pines Under Water

Celebrated by Canadian Poets as a profound, personal interpreation of Canada, Dark Pines Under Water paints the traditional, renowned literary perception of the Canadian Landscape, as well as analyzing the psychological and spiritual complexity of the early explorers' opinions of the Great North.

With a strong theme of exploration and environment, Dark Pines Under Water by Gwendolyn MacEwen, 1969, symbollically captures my fascination and faith in Canada.

This land like a mirror turns you inward

And you become a forest in a furtive lake;

The dark pines of your mind reach downward,

You dream in the green of your time,

Your memory is now a row of sinking pines.

Explorer, you tell yourself this is not what you came for

Although it is good here, and green;

You had meant to move with a kind of largeness,

You had planned a heavy grace, an anguished dream.

But the dark pines of your mind dip deeper

And you are sinking, sinking, sleeper

In an elementary world;

There is something down there and you want it told.

~1969