An October Evening

An October Evening

Original Text
William Wilfred Campbell, The Dread Voyage: Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1893), pp. 141-42. B-10 5840 Fisher Library.
1The woods are haggard and lonely,
2     The skies are hooded for snow,
3The moon is cold in Heaven,
5The bearded swamps are breathing
8     Under the pale Pole Star.
9There is never a voice in Heaven,
10     Nor ever a sound on earth,
11Where the spectres of winter are rising
13There is slumber and death in the silence,
14     There is hate in the winds so keen;
15And the flash of the north's great sword-blade
16     Circles its cruel sheen.
17The world grows agèd and wintry,
18     Love's face peakèd and white;
19And death is kind to the tired ones
20     Who sleep in the north to-night.

Notes

4] sere: withered. Back to Line
6] meres: pools of water. Back to Line
7] Great Bear: the constellation Ursa Major. Back to Line
12] wan girth: the dark band of night encircling the northern hemisphere. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1893
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme