The Camper
Night ‘neath the northern skies, lone, black, and grim:
Naught but the starlight lies ‘twixt heaven, and him.
Of man no need has he, of God, no prayer;
He and his Deity are brothers there.
Above his bivouac the firs fling down
Through branches gaunt and black, their needles brown.
Afar some mountains streams, rockbound and fleet,
Sing themselves through his dreams in cadence sweet,
The pine trees whispering, the heron’s cry,
The plover’s passing wing, his lullaby.
And blinking overhead the white stars keep.
Watch o’er his hemlock bed – his sinless sleep.
By Pauline Johnson, from Flint and Feather (1912)
Take care