Indian Summer

by WILLIAM WILFRED CAMPBELL (1860-1918)

Along the line of smoky hills
The crimson forest stands,
And all the day the blue-jay calls
Throughout the autumn lands.

Now by the brook the maple leans
With all his glory spread,
And all the sumachs on the hills
Have turned their green to red.

Now by great marshes wrapt in mist,
Or past some river’s mouth,
Throughout the long, still autumn day
Wild birds are flying south.

Born in 1860, William Wilfred Campbell’s poetry began to be well-known as he entered his 30s. “Indian Summer” appeared in his first book Snowflakes and sunbeams (1888), and was well-received in both Canada and the United States. The poem still holds a place among Canada’s most treasured verse and is but one of the nature-themed poems that helped establish Campbell’s reputation as “laureate of the lakes.”

William Wilfred Campbell Contemporaries
Duncan Campbell Smith
A. E. Housman
Bliss Carman
George Santayana