The sonnet "To the Ottawa River" was written by one of the best-known Canadian poets of the 19th century, Archibald Lampman.

In the beginning of this song, the piano part pictures the slow flow of a large river which is exploited by men "to turn the saws and hammers of a hundred mills." In the middle part the music becomes quite stormy, describing the noise of the water falling over chutes and cataracts, and its contempt for men's greed for gold. A powerful dynamic climax is reached with the top registers of the piano slowly descending chromatically over tumultuous and repeated low pedal C's, picturing again the eternal slow motion of the river which is quite unconcerned with men's search for wealth.