The Poets' Pathway meanders through 35 kilometres of Ottawa green space. According to the pathway's web site,
the Pathway will pay homage long over-due to some of our greatest and our original poets; the work of these poets was dominated by their feeling for the land, the first writing to actually celebrate CANADA’s land. The pathway stretches from Britannia Park to Beechwood Cemetery. This memorial is near the east end of Nepean Pond, just beyond the Charmaine Hopper Fields.
This particular memorial celebrates William Wilfred Campbell (1860-1918), one of the Confederation Poets. According to the relevant article in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Campbell was considered the laureate of the lakes.
John Coldwell Adams called him the unofficial poet laureate of Canada.
DOWN THE MERIVALE ROAD
At morning down the Merivale road
When all the world is June,
Of woods and fields the blest abode,
And meadow larks atune,
Under the maples in the sun
The world is fair and sweet,
For miles the fields and meadows run,
A paradise complete.
In fields where daisies blink their eyes,
And molten sunlight sifts,
The buttercup unto the skies
Its golden chalice lifts.
And out beyond the valley, where
The mighty river lies,
Dim, blue and misty, vast and fair,
The lone Laurentians rise.