An August Mood
Where the pines have fallen on the hillside
The green needles burning in the sun
Make sweet incense in the vacant spaces
All along the run
Of the rill; and by the rillside
Rushes waver and shine;
In remote and shady places
Wintergreen abounds and interlaces
With the twinflower vine.
The young earth appears aloof and lonely
Swinging in the ether, only
Nature left, with all her golden foison;
No ambitions here to wound or poison
With their fears and wishes,
The pure life of birds and beasts and fishes.
All our human passion and endeavour
Idle as a thistle down
Lightly wheeling, blown about forever;
All our vain renown
Slighter is than flicker of the rushes;
All our prate of evil and of good,
Lesser than the comment of two thrushes
Talking in the wood.
---
Duncan Campbell Scott
from The Poems of Duncan Campbell Scott, 1926
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada]
Duncan Campbell Scott biography
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