May in the Selkirks / Bliss Carman

May in the Selkirks

Up the Illecillewat and down the yellow Beaver,
Over skyward passes where snow-peaks touch the blue.
Shining silver rivers dropping down from Heaven,
With the spring-call of the wilderness waking spring anew.

Far gleaming glaciers like the gates of glory,
And the hosts in new green marching up the slopes,
Organ-voiced torrents singing through the gorges,
Songs for the high trail and visions for our hopes.

Hints of light supernal on the rocky ledges,
Echoes of wild music from the valley floors,
And the tall evergreens watching the threshhold,
Keeping the silence of the Lord of out-of-doors.

Balm out of Paradise blown across the canyons
From the balsam-poplar buds and bronze leafs uncurled....
Soul in her wonder lifts the new Magnificat,
Alight with the rapture of the morning of the world.

---
Bliss Carman (1861-1929)
from The Music of Earth, 1931

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

Bliss Carman biography