Foothills to the Rockies lifting
  Brown, and blue, and green,
Warm Alberta sunlight drifting
  Over leagues between.

That’s the country of the ranges,
  Plain and prairie land,
And the God who never changes
  Holds it in His hand.

AUTUMN’S ORCHESTRA

(INSCRIBED TO ONE BEYOND SEAS)

Know by the thread of music woven through
This fragile web of cadences I spin,
That I have only caught these songs since you
Voiced them upon your haunting violin.

THE OVERTURE

October’s orchestra plays softly on
The northern forest with its thousand strings,
And Autumn, the conductor wields anon
The Golden-rod—­ The baton that he swings.

THE FIRS

There is a lonely minor chord that sings
Faintly and far along the forest ways,
When the firs finger faintly on the strings
Of that rare violin the night wind plays,
Just as it whispered once to you and me
Beneath the English pines beyond the sea.

MOSSES

The lost wind wandering, forever grieves
    Low overhead,
Above grey mosses whispering of leaves
    Fallen and dead. 
And through the lonely night sweeps their refrain
Like Chopin’s prelude, sobbing ’neath the rain.

THE VINE

The wild grape mantling the trail and tree,
Festoons in graceful veils its drapery,
Its tendrils cling, as clings the memory stirred
By some evasive haunting tune, twice heard.

THE MAPLE

I

It is the blood-hued maple straight and strong,
Voicing abroad its patriotic song.

II

Its daring colours bravely flinging forth
The ensign of the Nation of the North.

HARE-BELL

Elfin bell in azure dress,
Chiming all day long,
Ringing through the wilderness
Dulcet notes of song. 
Daintiest of forest flowers
Weaving like a spell—­
Music through the Autumn hours,
Little Elfin bell.

THE GIANT OAK

And then the sound of marching armies ’woke
Amid the branches of the soldier oak,
And tempests ceased their warring cry, and dumb
The lashing storms that muttered, overcome,
Choked by the heralding of battle smoke,
When these gnarled branches beat their martial drum.

ASPENS

A sweet high treble threads its silvery song,
Voice of the restless aspen, fine and thin
It trills its pure soprano, light and long—­
Like the vibretto of a mandolin.