The name FLEURS DE LYS has been chosen for the Canadian Poems in the
early portion of this book, because the scenes and incidents they
describe belong to the Monarchial, or Fleur de Lys, period of France in
Canada. The royal crest during the seventeenth century is depicted
upon the cover.
Many of these poems have already appeared in the columns of the
Carnival and Jubilee _Star_, the Toronto _Week_, the
_University Gazette_, and the Montreal _Gazette_, as well as
in the Daily and Weekly _Star_, and it is the kindly reception
which they met with that has led the author to publish them in this
more permanent form.
Some of the poems were written at twenty, and the latest at twenty-
three, so that the author hopes the critics will consider this volume
rather as a bud than as a flower, and will criticize it with the view
to aiding him to avoid faults in the future rather than to censuring
him for errors of the present and past.
To Mr. George Murray, of this city, the author is deeply indebted for
encouragement when encouragement was most needed, and for much valuable
assistance in the selection and revision of these verses for
publication.
It is hoped that the notes at the end of this book will throw
sufficient light upon the verses to make them perfectly intelligible to
the reader.
December, 1st, 1887.