Emily Pauline Johnson (1861-1913), also known as Tekahionwake, was a popular Canadian poet, author and performer. Her father was a Mohawk chief of mixed ancestry, and her mother was an immigrant from England. Johnson’s work reflects her heritage from both parents.

“Moonset”
by E. Pauline Johnson

Idles the night wind through the dreaming firs,
That waking murmur low,
As some lost melody returning stirs
The love of long ago;
And through the far, cool distance, zephyr fanned.
The moon is sinking into shadow-land.

The troubled night-bird, calling plaintively,
Wanders on restless wing;
The cedars, chanting vespers to the sea,
Await its answering,
That comes in wash of waves along the strand,
The while the moon slips into shadow-land.

O! soft responsive voices of the night
I join your minstrelsy.
And call across the fading silver light
As something calls to me;
I may not all your meaning understand,
But I have touched your soul in shadow-land.