---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Palmer, Annie D.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 18
number: 8
published: 1915-06
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Annie D. Palmer, "The Call of the Canyon: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 18, no. 8 (June 1915): 661.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1808unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1808unse
start_page: 661
end_page: 661
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-06)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1808unse
  publication_year: 1915
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1915, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Call of the Canyon: A Poem

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The Call of the Canyon
When the days are the hottest in all of the year,
And the dust and the glare of the summer is here
When even the breath of the night settles down
Like a palsy to deaden the pulse of the town,
Comes the call of the canyon to lure me away
Where the squirrel, the breeze, and the cataract play.

With the call of the canyon. come visions of rest
On the river's cool bank, where the angling is best,
Come dreams of the dreaming, when each tired head
First knew the repose of a fragrant pine bed,
First felt the soft zephyrs at play with his hair,
First saw how Aurora sifts light through the air.

With the call of the canyon my hunger returns,
That old school-time hunger that toil never earns
The hunger that flavors each morsel just right,
And comes without coaxing, noon, morning, and night.
The games 'round the bonfire, the story, and song,
With the call of the canyon come crowding along.

With the call of the canyon come' memories sweet
Of the dawning of love with its chapter complete
Of the timid response when my love was declared,
And her modest reserve in confessing she cared
How I loved in the canyon to stroll by her side,
To the deeps of the grove where the feather-ferns hide.

While the canyon is calling, I quicken my pace,
And clasp her again in a loving embrace
Still just as angelic, as modest,   as fair,
And we plan a short rest from life's hurry and care
With our girls and our boys in a canyon retreat,
Where the gladness of nature our gladness will greet.
                                    Annie D. Palmer