Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN THE FOREST, by ALEXANDER MCLACHLAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE FOREST, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Soon we entered in the woods
Last Line: But this stranger no one knew.
Variant Title(s): The Arrival
Subject(s): Forests; Pioneers; Woods


Soon we entered in the woods,
On the trackless solitudes,
Where the spruce and cedar made
An interminable shade;
And the pine and hemlock stood,
Monarchs of the solitude,
And we picked our way along,
Sometimes right and sometimes wrong;
For a long and weary day,
Thus we journeyed on our way,
Picked a path through swale and swamp,
And at evening fixed our camp;
Where a lovely little spring
Murmured like a living thing. ...

There we laid us down to rest,
With the cold earth for our bed,
And the green boughs overhead;
And again at break of day,
Started on our weary way;
Through morasses, over bogs,
Wading rivers, crossing logs,
Scrambling over fallen trees,
Wading pond holes to the knees;
Sometimes wandering from the track;
And to find it turning back;
Scorning ills that would betide us,
Stout hearts and the sun to guide us.

Then there came a change of scene,
Groves of beech and maple green,
Streams that murmured through the glade,
Little flowers that loved the shade,
Lovely birds of gorgeous dye,
Flitted 'mong the branches high,
Coloured like the setting sun,
But were songless every one;
No one like the linnet gray,
In our home so far away;
No one singing like the thrush,
To his mate within the bush;

No one like the gentle lark,
Singing between light and dark;
Soaring from the dewy sod,
Like a herald up to God.
Some had lovely amber wings,
Round their necks were golden rings;
Some were purple, others blue,
All were lovely, strange and new;
But although surpassing fair,
Still the song was wanting there;
Then we heard the rush of pigeons,
Flocking to those lonely regions;
And anon when all was still,
Paused to hear the whip-poor-will;
And we thought of the cuckoo,
But this stranger no one knew.





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