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From: joseph macdonald <>
Subject: [NS-CB-L] ELEGY WRITTEN FOR A PIONEER CEMETERY composed by Stanley G. Collins
Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 02:25:00 -0400

Hi Vince and Listers:

This was composed by STANLEY G. COLLINS and appeared in the March 30th,
1994 edition of the Inverness Oran. Stanley is a composer, song writer
and poet. Who Vince I just found out is related to. Stanley was also the
composer of the "Judique Flyer" and "Do You Remember"

ELEGY written for a pioneer cemetery

I stand 'mid tall elms in blest solitude
In a neglected graveyard where pioneers lay,
And can't help but ponder their tools so crude
As they downed giant timber and tilled of the clay.
I ask myself, "can they just know from above
How neglectful we've been and so lacking in love?"
While somewhere up in God's Heavenly sphere
I'm sure they're rewarded for good deeds done here.
Now the first to arrive to this blessed domain
Sailed waters from Scotland and staked out their claim,
They carved out a living with sweat of the brow
With faith in their saviour they'd manage somehow.
Though dollars were nil, 'twas here they would stay
To work and to labour by night and by day,
A committee was formed, a decision was made
To thin out the elms, extreme with their shade.
With modern methods, great progress was seen
They smoothed out the surface and turned it to green,
There was one fine memorial so firm on the plot
Of one named MacKinnon, his wish and his lot,
By a sparkling jewel where swims the black duck
He came here from Scotland, from the Isle of Muck.
Two brothers he had chose to settle close by
By our pretty Lake Ainslie where bald eagles fly,
And to Archibald's liking, who could ask for more
With such view of fine mountains surrounding the shore.
Now I stand here again and with pride look around
With excess removed from this blest hallowed ground,
A beautiful cairn stands staunch and secure
In memory of all who have passed on before.
In our book and on record, twenty six lie below
No doubt there are others, but names we'll not know.
How oft I meander down the lake side
With imaginate reminiscence I sit and I bide,
While in fancy they're back in a state so forlorn
As they gaze where they laboured all covered with thorn/
I arise from my sitting, walk slowly along
The thorns will keep growing long after I'm gone,
We must not forget the men and their moil
Who laboured with roots and with interest did toil.
Such work of perfection is there for to scan
By our shimmering jewel in its beauty and calm,
Strong faith in our saviour, we'll all meet someday
Away from all sorrow in a land far away.

Happy hunting
Juanita MacD.

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• [NS-CB-L] ELEGY WRITTEN FOR A PIONEER CEMETERY composed by Stanley G. Collins by joseph macdonald <>