{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/province-of-ontario",
 "title": "Province of Ontario",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 4,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 80,
  "n_stanzas": 20,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In the land of woods and lakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pure happiness each one partakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who is sound in body and in mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And to industry is inclined.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here in great lakes we do take pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And them with Uncle Sam divide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Other lakes seem inferior",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In size to great Superior.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Canadians do take pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Huron’s wide expanded tide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But it onward flows forever,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through St. Clair lake and river.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But soon again it doth expand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into Erie’s lake so grand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then behold its wondrous charms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When embraced in Niagara’s arms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then it more blessings doth bestow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On pure bosom of Ontario,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round it our towns and cities cluster,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er it Toronto sheds her lustre.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Ontario doth awake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The thought that ’tis our favorite lake;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Several states approach Lake Erie,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each one claiming it for dearie.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But our fires of love do glow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone for Lake Ontario,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our love for it is so unbounded,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We have almost it surrounded.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the lands around its beaches,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are famed for grapes and peaches,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mong choicest fruits you ramble on",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Niagara to Hamilton.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ontario North is land of pines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A land of lakes and rocks and mines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And beneath dark pine tree shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How happy is the youth and maid.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For here in summer you keep cool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fish for trout in sparkling pool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For pike or salmon you can spear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the season hunt the deer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In great northern hunting ground,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where both fish and game abound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And verdant pastures here are seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where cattle graze ’mong sweetest green.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the far north a land of pines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the south we have the vines,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where each year adds into the charms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surrounds the homesteads on the farms.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nature our province doth endow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With hardy sons to guide the plow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In south we have the fruitful soil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where nature’s bounties on us smile.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We have got rich plains and highlands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ontario hath thousand islands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there is a great array",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of charming isles on Georgian Bay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And travellers all they do adore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lovely isles near Huron’s shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Superior makes a grand display,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All round her shores to Thunder Bay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Muskoka’s famed for woods and brakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For rocks and meadows and clear lakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sportsmen for it proudly claim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That ’tis a land for fish and game.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There doth arise a sweet aroma",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From great spruce forests of Algoma,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from the poplar, birch and pine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There too is wealth in many a mine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It may be that of mines the best,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will be found in Ontario West,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stretching towards the interior,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three hundred miles west of Superior.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Essex is our sunny south,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the Detroit river’s mouth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There the sun doth cheerful smile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the grape vineyards of Pelee Isle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Pioneer’s axe it now doth ring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the shores of Nipissing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some do locate claims away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To distant north around James’ Bay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}