Morning on the Lièvre

Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)



Far above us where a jay
  Screams his matins to the day,
  Capped with gold and amethyst,
  Like a vapor from the forge
  Of a giant somewhere hid,
  Out of hearing of the clang
  Of his hammer, skirts of mist
  Slowly up the woody gorge
  Lift and hang.

 Softly as a cloud we go,
 Sky above and sky below,
 Down the river; and the dip
 Of the paddles scarcely breaks,
 With the little silvery drip
 Of the water as it shakes
 From the blades, the crystal deep
 Of the silence of the morn,
 Of the forest yet asleep;
 And the river reaches borne
 In a mirror, purple gray,
 Sheer away
 To the misty line of light,
 Where the forest and the stream
 In the shadow meet and plight,
 Like a dream.

 From amid a stretch of reeds,
 Where the lazy river sucks
 All the water as it bleeds
 From a little curling creek,
 And the muskrats peer and sneak
 In around the sunken wrecks
 Of a tree that swept the skies
 Long ago,
 On a sudden seven ducks
 With a splashy rustle rise,
 Stretching out their seven necks,
 One before, and two behind,
 And the others all arow,
 And as steady as the wind
 With a swivelling whistle go,
 Through the purple shadow led,
 Till we only hear their whir
 In behind a rocky spur,
 Just ahead.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 23, 2023

1:08 min read
43

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCXDBCD EEFGFGHIHIAAJKJK LMLNNOPEMPOQRQESRRS
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,210
Words 229
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 9, 16, 19

Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman FRSC was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English." Lampman is classed as one of Canada's Confederation Poets, a group which also includes Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. more…

All Archibald Lampman poems | Archibald Lampman Books

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