By A Foreigner
I like Canadians.
They are so unlike Americans.
They go home at night.
Their cigarettes don't smell bad.
Their hats fit.
They really believe that they won the war.
They don't believe in Literature.
They think Art has been exaggerated.
But they are wonderful on ice skates.
A few of them are very rich.
But when they are rich they buy more horses
Than motor cars.
Chicago calls Toronto a puritan town.
But both boxing and horse-racing are illegal
In Chicago.
Nobody works on Sunday.
Nobody.
That doesn't make me mad.
There is only one Woodbine.
But were you ever at Blue Bonnets?
If you kill somebody with a motor car in Ontario
You are liable to go to jail.
So it isn't done.
There have been over 500 people killed by motor cars
In Chicago
So far this year.
It is hard to get rich in Canada.
But it is easy to make money.
There are too many tea rooms.
But, then, there are no cabarets.
If you tip a waiter a quarter
He says "Thank you."
Instead of calling the bouncer.
They let women stand up in the street cars.
Even if they are good-looking.
They are all in a hurry to get home to supper
And their radio sets.
They are a fine people.
I like them.
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Comments
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Oh i like this poem, not only because Im Canadian but because Ernest Hemingway wrote it!!!
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I get a kick out of this one in about the same way as the last. How odd to go through a great war fighting side by side, trying to sum up all the similarities and differences about the country next door.I'm particularly fond of the line common to both "They really believe that they won the war."
I find this poem and the last to be more gently ironic than some of his others, almost humorist in nature. I love the attempt to sum us the whole culture, both of them in fact, in both of the poems by such simple sweeping statements. They make me smile. -
canadians rule
This is greatness -
I have met more Americans than I have Canadians and from that limited basis I agree with Hemmingway (or at least with this title). The poem may be just a catalogue of impressions but it makes more sense than a lot of his poems do on first reading.
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From guest beez (contact)
That is a good poem... i live in canada and i dont even no THAT much about it.... :S -
They are wonderful on ice skates.
I recently visited Canada and it was summertime so I wasn't able to enjoy the ice skating experience but would love to.
Nobody works on Sunday...sounds like Germany. I lived there for 2 years and it seemed Sunday was the day to bathe and relax. It was interesting but I never did really get into the bathing on Sunday deal...I like to bathe, every day!
I had no idea of the number of deaths in Chicago either though if I had I would have been extra careful when I was visiting there at the age of 14. I was running with my friends here and there never thinking I could be struck by a vehicle at any moment. I guess I was just lucky.
I like this write also.
aimee jo
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