The Beautiful Nature Poetry of Archibald Lampman

Why do ye call the poet lonely,

Because he dreams in lonely places?

He is not desolate, but only

Sees, where ye cannot, hidden faces.

I relate so deeply to the above poem - the sense of seeing the faces of nature, of not feeling lonely in places away from other human beings, because those places are full of other kinds of beings. 

This is just one example of the beautiful nature poetry of Archibald Lampman (1861 - 1899), which I have only recently discovered. 

Described as the 'Canadian Keats', Lampman's poetry will perhaps be considered by many today as a little too 'pastoral', yet, while I would agree with that description to a point, there is so much profound beauty to be found in his poems. 

Here is one of my favourites:

Voices of Earth

We have not heard the music of the spheres,

The song of star to star, but there are sounds

More deep than human joy and human tears,

That Nature uses in her common rounds;

The fall of streams, the cry of winds that strain

The oak, the roaring of the sea's surge, might

Of thunder breaking afar off, or rain

That falls by minutes in the summer night.

These are the voices of earth's secret soul,

Uttering the mystery from which she came.

To him who hears them grief beyond control,

Or joy inscrutable without a name,

Wakes in his heart thoughts bedded there, impearled,

Before the birth and making of the world.

What makes Lampman even more compelling to me is the sobering fact that he died at the age of 37 - the age I am currently. Furthermore, he did not consider himself a great poet. Despite finding some success in his lifetime, he once wrote in a letter to a friend:

"I am not a great poet and I never was. Greatness in poetry must proceed from greatness of character - from force, fearlessness, brightness. I have none of those qualities. I am, if anything, the very opposite, I am weak, I am a coward, I am a hypochondriac. I am a minor poet of a superior order, and that is all."

Dear Archibald, I respectfully disagree that you did not possess a brightness. Your poems have brought a certain magic to my life. 

Lampman's poetry collections are available for free from Project Gutenberg.

Alternatively, I've edited a collection of his best nature poems and made it available on Kindle. For Kindle Unlimited members it's free to read, otherwise you can buy it for 99p. 'An Old Lesson From the Fields & Other Nature Poems' by Archibald Lampman is available here.