Diverse People and Landscapes

Vast and Varied

“Between Two Furious Oceans”

Dick Diespecker

You have asked me an enormous question …

You have asked me, “What am I?”

Now I must tell you, the vast you

That straddles the vital earth between

Two furious oceans; you whose limbs

Are strong, whose blood is rich with power…

You are the quiet bays and the lonely shadows of the firs;

The vast green acres blanketing the wide Alberni hills,

Hemlock and cedar and spruce … proud with everlasting green;

Cold blue glaciers, spilling their life into roaring Atlin creeks;

Meadows in the clouds and valleys mute with solitude;

Sun-bright arbutus islands of the Gulf of Georgia; oaks

Golden broom and meadow larks; the mournful cry of gulls.

You are the Rocky Mountains, white with snow of centuries,

Eternal rocks that rise in columned ranks to meet the dawn,

The sunset and the frigid moon; you are the canyon walls,

Loud with ferocious rivers, and the still, imperious lakes,

Cobalt and sapphire, emerald and violet, and under the starlight, black

With the secrets of the western night; you are the mountain goat,

Poised, majestic and alone upon the barren crag,

And below, deep woods, blue grouse and grizzlies and the sombre moose.

You are the reckless foothills clambering down the eastern slopes;

The winding Bow, the dusty Badlands and the Sweetgrass buttes;

The flat immenseness of the prairies, blue with unbounded space.

You are the heaving lakes, the rolling, green-jacketed hills

Of Stormont and Dundas, roaring Niagra and the swift

Cold current of the Ottawa, hedged with silver birch;

The stately St.Lawrence and the rugged hills that stretch into the vast

And friendless wilderness of Porcupine and Kirkland Lake.

You are the dainty meadows and the lazy dappled streams

Of Joliette; the cool whisper of Laurentian breezes;

The river willows and the gracious elms; chipmunk and beaver

And the antlered deer; the green windswept curve of Gaspe’ loin,

It’s sanded coves, white capes and beaches, and their curling waves.

You are the maple groves that undulate, mile upon mile,

Over the wave-like hills of the Maritimes, mantling them

With rich green in the summer, kindling them with a million fires,

Blazing with consuming crimson golden lights like beacon flames

To proclaim the season’s death when crackling autumn days explode,

Leaving them black and naked in the waning year, tracing

Their lonely fingers against the leaden sky and the forbidding

ocean.

“Between Two Furious Oceans”

Dick Diespecker

1.  Who or what has the poet chosen to act as the voice of this poem?

2.  How appropriate was the poet's description of each provincial region?

3.  The poet is concerned with comparisons and contrasts in the Canadian landscape (i.e., green-jacketed hills; dusty badlands). What other examples of description highlight this diversity and these contrasts? What landscapes are missing? What voices are not heard?

Paragraph Writing

In a recent speaking assignment you explained the following topic: What Canada Means to You. Refer directly to this poem, "Between Two Furious Oceans", and either agree/disagree that this poem in some ways represents what Canada means to you. Answer in complete sentences. (5 = paragraph structure, 5 = content/connection)