The Land of Edmonton

Alice Major became Edmonton's first Poet Laureate in 2005. Part of her duty in this role is to write works for the people of Edmonton and to commemorate major events in the city. In 2007, she wrote the poem, "Full of noises," to celebrate Edmonton's designation as a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2007. The title draws on a passage in Shakespeare's The Tempest, where Caliban is describing Prospero's magic island.

    FULL OF NOISES

    Out of the evening dark beyond drawn blinds,
    comes a low, harmonic moan — the graders
    are scraping snow from ice-plated roads
    and their blades send out this strange music
    over the muffled blocks and rooftops
    like the call of some melancholy beast
    resonating in an ocean.

    This city full of songs
    borne on winter's airs.
    Basso profundo of furnaces and motors.
    The furtive percussion of crack
    alley. The orange chords
    of humming freeway, light's white noise.

    Then the pines' tall bows strung to the tips
    with the small tunes of chickadee and siskin
    almost too high to hear.

    We are a singing shell on an island
    of white cold, an orchestra
    of interlocking spheres that reaches
    to the faint feet of the northern lights,

    who will dance if you sing to them.
    Open the curtains.

Edmonton:

12500 Before Present: Edmonton is a chilly and desolate place; 85 percent of Alberta is covered by glaciers.

11000 Before Present to 12000 Before Present: The first Albertans populate the area.

1670: The British Crown grants the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) a trade monopoly in "Rupert's Land."

1690: The HBC's Henry Kelsey, with the aid of Cree guides, explores the West.

1730: The Shoshoni are the first Aboriginals of the northwestern plains to acquire horses. They get them from the Comanches to the south.

1754: The first European to visit what is now Alberta, Anthony Henday, arrives at present-day Edmonton on March 5.

1763: The Royal Proclamation assures all Natives west of the Great Lakes that their land and resources shall not be disturbed by Europeans.

1794: The HBC and the North West Fur Company establish Old Fort Edmonton and Old Fort Augustus 25 miles downstream from present day Edmonton on the Sturgeon River.

1795: The HBC establish a fur trading post at present day Edmonton.