| William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913. | | | | From ‘November: A Dirge’ | | By J. R. Ramsay (1849–1907) |
| | | DEPARTING wild birds gather | |
| On the high branches, ere they haste away, | |
| Singing their farewell to the frigid ether | |
| And fading day, | |
| To sport no more on withered mead or heather; | 5 |
| No longer gay. | |
| |
| The little cricket’s singing | |
| Sounds lonely in the crisp and yellow leaves, | |
| Like bygone tones of tenderness upbringing | |
| A thought that grieves: | 10 |
| A bell upon a ruined turret ringing | |
| On Sabbath eves. | |
| |
| The ‘tempest-loving raven’, | |
| Pilot of storms across the silent sky, | |
| Soars loftily along the heaving heaven | 15 |
| With doleful cry, | |
| Uttering lone dirges. Thistle-beards are driven | |
| Where the winds sigh. | |
| |
| And yet here is a flower | |
| Still lingering, by the changing season spared, | 20 |
| And a lone bird within a leafless bower— | |
| Two friends, who dared | |
| To share the shadows of misfortune’s hour, | |
| Though unprepared. | | | | |
|
|
