Local Sketches

On grassy amphitheatre,
Spectators sit to view the war,
’Mong bold contestants on the plain
Where each doth strive the prize to gain.

Come witness the great tug of war,
And see great hammer thrown afar,
See running, jumping, highland fling,
At concert hear the skylark sing.

And the bagpipes will send thrills,
Like echoes from the distant hills,
And the bold sound of the pibroch,
Which does resound o’er highland loch.

Young men and maids and fine old dames
Will gather on the banks of Thames,
And though we have a tug of war
’Twill leave no wound or deadly scar.

Where this text comes from

First published in Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames (1884). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry, poetry.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L16.

Cite this poem

James McIntyre (1828?–1906). “Local Sketches.” First published in Musings on the Banks of Canadian Thames (1884). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/james-mcintyre/local-sketches/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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