Henry W. Shoemaker - "A Catalogue of Early Pennsylvania and Other Firearms and Edged Weapons at Restless Oaks"

D. H. Lawrence - "Fantasia of the Unconscious"

Ferdinand Gregorovius - "Lucretia Borgia"

Nell Speed - "Molly Brown's Orchard Home"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Life in the Backwoods

S >> Susanna Moodie >> Life in the Backwoods




"Ah, have I not, Mr. S____? but to tell you the truth, I have been both
lucky and unlucky in the wife way," and then he told us the history of his
several ventures in matrimony, with which I shall not trouble my readers.

When he had concluded, the weather was somewhat milder, the sleigh was
ordered to the door, and we proceeded on our journey, resting, for the
night at a small village about twenty miles from B____, rejoicing that the
long distance which separated us from the husband and father was
diminished to a few miles, and that, with the blessing of Providence, we
should meet on the morrow.

About noon we reached the distant town, and were met at the inn by him
whom, one and all so ardently longed to see. He conducted us to a pretty,
neat cottage, which he had prepared for our reception, and where we found
old Jenny already arrived. With great pride the old woman conducted me
over the premises, and showed me the furniture "the masther" had bought;
especially recommending to my notice a china tea-service, which she
considered the most wonderful acquisition of the whole.

"Och! who would have thought, a year ago, misthress dear, that we should
be living in a mansion like this, and ating off raal chaney? It is but
yestherday that we were hoeing praties in the field."

"Yes, Jenny, God has been very good to us, and I hope that we shall never
learn to regard with indifference the many benefits which we have received
at His hands."


Reader! it is not my intention to trouble you with the sequel of our
history. I have given you a faithful picture of a life in the backwoods of
Canada, and I leave you to draw from it your own conclusions. To the poor,
industrious workingman it presents many advantages; to the poor gentleman,
_none!_ The former works hard, puts up with coarse, scanty fare, and
submits, with a good grace, to hardships that would kill a domesticated
animal at home. Thus he becomes independent, inasmuch as the land that he
has cleared finds him in the common necessaries of life; but it seldom, if
ever, in remote situations, accomplishes more than this. The gentleman can
neither work so hard, live so coarsely, nor endure so many privations as
his poorer but more fortunate neighbour. Unaccustomed to manual labour,
his services in the field are not of a nature to secure for him a
profitable return. The task is new to him, he knows not how to perform it
well; and, conscious of his deficiency, he expends his little means in
hiring labour, which his bush farm can never repay. Difficulties increase,
debts grow upon him, he struggles in vain to extricate himself, and
finally sees his family sink into hopeless ruin.

If these sketches should prove the means of deterring one family from
sinking their property, and shipwrecking all their hopes, by going to
reside in the backwoods of Canada, I shall consider myself amply repaid
for revealing the secrets of the prison house, and feel that I have not
toiled and suffered in the wilderness in vain.



THE MAPLE-TREE.

A CANADIAN SONG.


Hail to the pride of the forest--hail
To the maple, tall and green;
It yields a treasure which ne'er shall fail
While leaves on its boughs are seen.
When the moon shines bright,
On the wintry night,
And silvers the frozen snow;
And echo dwells
On the jingling bells
As the sleighs dart to and fro;
Then it brightens the mirth
Of the social hearth
With its red and cheery glow.

Afar, 'mid the bosky forest shades,
It lifts its tall head on high;
When the crimson-tinted evening fades
From the glowing saffron sky;
When the sun's last beams
Light up woods and streams,
And brighten the gloom below;
And the deer springs by
With his flashing eye,
And the shy, swift-footed doe;
And the sad winds chide
In the branches wide,
With a tender plaint of woe.

The Indian leans on its rugged trunk,
With the bow in his red right-hand,
And mourns that his race, like a stream, has sunk
From the glorious forest land.
But, blithe and free,
The maple-tree,
Still tosses to sun and air
Its thousand arms,
While in countless swarms
The wild bee revels there;
But soon not a trace
Of the red man's race
Shall be found in the landscape fair.

When the snows of winter are melting fast,
And the sap begins to rise,
And the biting breath of the frozen blast
Yields to the spring's soft sighs,
Then away to the wood,
For the maple, good,
Shall unlock its honied store;
And boys and girls,
With their sunny curls,
Bring their vessels brimming o'er
With the luscious flood
Of the brave tree's blood,
Into caldrons deep to pour.

The blaze from the sugar-bush gleams red;
Far down in the forest dark,
A ruddy glow on the trees is shed,
That lights up their ragged bark;
And with merry shout,
The busy rout
Watch the sap as it bubbles high;
And they talk of the cheer
Of the coming year,
And the jest and the song pass by;
And brave tales of old
Round the fire are told,
That kindle youth's beaming eye.

Hurra! for the sturdy maple-tree!
Long may its green branch wave;
In native strength sublime and free,
Meet emblem for the brave.
May the nation's peace
With its growth increase,
And its worth be widely spread;
For it lifts not in vain
To the sun and rain
Its tall, majestic head.
May it grace our soil,
And reward our toil,
Till the nation's heart is dead!


Reader! my task is ended.

THE END

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