Lake Nipigon

High-Shouldered and ruddy and sturdy,
Like droves of pre-Adanite monsters,
The vast mounded rocks of red basalt
Lie basking round Nipigon's waters;
And still lies the lake, as if fearing
To trouble their centuried slumber;
And heavy o'er lake and in heaven
A dim veil of smoke tells of forests
Ablaze in the far lonely Northland:
And over us, blood-red and sullen,
The sun shines on gray-shrouded islands,
And under us, blood-red and sullen!
The sun in the dark umber water
Looks up at the gray, murky heaven,
While one lonely loon on the water
Is wailing his mate, and beside us
Two shaggy-haired Chippewa children
In silence watch sadly the white man.