PIONEER
1 He laboured, starved, and ploughed:
In these last days
Cities roar where his voice
In lonely wilderness first sang out praise.

5 Out of the forest, walls,
From rock, the wheat:
Winters to chill the heart
That slowly withers in the summer's heat.

Out of the fight, desire
10 Re-born each spring
To leave some mark behind-
High harvest for the autumn's gathering.

What labourer could dream
The axe's chime
15 And swiftly builded house
Would mean a city in so brief a time. ..

He sits with folded hands
And burns to see
How he has ravaged earth
20 Of her last stone, her last, most stubborn tree.
Dorothy Livesay
Contemporary Canadian poet and playwright

The contrast established in the poem is most effectively conveyed by the lines
a) Cities roar where his voice / In lonely wilderness first sang out praise"
b) Winters to chill the heart / That slowly withers in the summer's heat"
c) The axe's chime / And swiftly builded house / Would mean a city"
d) How he has ravaged earth / Of her last stone, her last, most stubborn tree"