| William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913. | | | | The Cattle Country | | By Emily Pauline Johnson (1861–1913) |
| | | UP the dusk-enfolded prairie, | |
| Footfalls soft and sly, | |
| Velvet cushioned, wild and wary; | |
| Then—the coyote’s cry. | |
| |
| Rush of hoofs and roar and rattle; | 5 |
| Beasts of blood and breed— | |
| Twenty thousand frightened cattle; | |
| Then—the wild stampede. | |
| |
| Pliant lasso, circling wider, | |
| With the frenzied flight; | 10 |
| Loping horse and cursing rider | |
| Plunging through the night. | |
| |
| Rim of dawn the darkness losing, | |
| Trail of blackened loam, | |
| Perfume of the sage brush oozing | 15 |
| On the air like foam. | |
| |
| Foothills to the Rockies lifting, | |
| Brown, and blue, and green; | |
| Warm Alberta sunlight drifting | |
| Over leagues between. | 20 |
| |
| That ’s the country of the ranges, | |
| Plain, and prairie-land; | |
| And the God who never changes | |
| Holds it in His hand. | | | | |
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