The Bird and the Hour

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

Nature

The sun looks over a little hill
And floods the valley with gold-
A torrent of gold;
And the hither field is green and still;
Beyond it a cloud outrolled,
Is glowing molten and bright;
And soon the hill, and the valley and all,
With a quiet fall,
Shall be gathered into the night.
And yet a moment more,
Out of the silent wood,
As if from the closing door
Of another world and another lovelier mood,
Hear'st thou the hermit pour-
So sweet! so magical!-
His golden music, ghostly beautiful.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

: 28 sec read
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Quick analysis:

Scheme	ABBABCDDCEFEGEHH
Closest metre	Iambic tetrameter
Characters	482
Words	94
Stanzas	1
Stanza Lengths	16

Full analysis for The Bird and the Hour »

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…

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