| William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913. | | | | The Morning-Land | | By Charles Mair (1838–1927) |
| | | THE LIGHT rains grandly from the distant wood, | |
| For in the wood the hermit sun is hid; | |
| So night draws back her curtains ebon-hued, | |
| To close them round some eastern pyramid. | |
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| The listless dew lies shining on the grass, | 5 |
| And o’er the streams the light darts quick away, | |
| And through the fields the morning sunbeams pass, | |
| Shot from the opening portals of the day. | |
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| Still upward mounts the tireless eremite, | |
| While all the herald birds make loud acclaim, | 10 |
| Till o’er the woods he rounds upon our sight, | |
| And lo! the western world is all aflame. | |
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| From out the landscape lying ’neath the sun | |
| The last sea-smelling, cloud-like mists arise; | |
| The smoky woods grow clear, and, one by one, | 15 |
| The meadow blossoms ope their winking eyes. | |
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| Now pleasèd Fancy starts with eager mien | |
| A-tiptoe, looking o’er the silent fields, | |
| Where all the land is fresh and calm and green, | |
| And every flow’r its balmy incense yields. | 20 |
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| And I, who am upon no business bent, | |
| A simple stroller through these dewy ways, | |
| Feel that all things are with my future blent, | |
| Yet see them in the light of bygone days. | | | | |
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