The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse
October MorningWilliam Wilfred Campbell (18611918)
B
Across your windy, keen exhilarant air,
You loom, a cameo dream, a vision fair;
Where through your purples and mauves of skeleton trees,
Friezes of lingering foliage, russet browns,
And wine-like crimsons, flaming torches, gold
Of maples, beeches, sumachs, poplars, shine
The horn-like, cloudy windows of the sky.
To feel your glow, austere, of wintry flame,
Your exquisite, Greek infinities of colour;
And know that inward thrill, that Titan vision,
Once more, Atlantean; the marbled bay,
Th’ Olympian mountain, Saturn’s mighty crown;
And hear once more the Tritons sing, and know
Once more, immortal, Earth’s old godlike dream.