A long narrative written in rhyming couplets and presented in 12 cantos, The U.E. tells the story of Walwyn and his sons, Ethwald and Eric, who come to Upper Canada from Yorkshire in the late 1820s, and the United Empire Loyalist Ranger John and his sons, Herman, Hendrick, Simcoe, and Hugh. The poem reaches its climax during the rebellions of 1837-38 when Hugh returns from the United States as a leader of a band of Americans intent on helping the rebels in order “to ourselves annex our glorious gains, / The Forest Land and all that it contains!”