Theme (Main Idea/Focus) of Wilfred Campbell's Poem "Indian Summer"?

Question

Could somebody please tell me what the theme/main idea/focus of Wilfred Campbell's poem "Indian Summer" is?

Indian Summer
Wilfred Campbell


Along the line of smoky hills
The crimson forest stands,
And all the day the blue jay calls
Throughout the autumn lands.

Now by the brook the maple leans
With all his glory spread,
And all the sumachs on the hills
Have turned their green to red.

Now by great marshes wrapt in mist,
Or past some river's mouth,
Throughout the long, still autumn day
Wild birds are flying south.

Answer 1

It doesn't seem like much of a poem to me ...

I guess a focus would be stillness and movement.

The first two stanzas -- actually the first 11 lines -- all focus on the stillness of a hot "Indian summer" day.

We see a basically still forest scene ... scenes of nature, the blue jay's call that drifts over the still scene.

And then in the last line ("Wild birds are flying south") the flight of the bird suggests that this seeming stillness is actually quickly ending, vanishing -- as true fall will displace this false spring.

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Oh, and the point is that Indians are sneaky liars, so an "Indian summer" is a false and deceitful summer.

Answer 2

The poet uses sense of sight to comment about a day in summer weather at the onset of autumn - crimson forest / blue jay/ sumachs on the hills/Have turned their green to red/ marshes wrapt in mist all attempt to capture the weather patterns within a day. It is as if there is suggestion of time movement from morn when one looks yonder at smoky hills. At about mid-day the "maple leans" and spreading its glory. The hills are changing color. Finally, the marshes are now misty and Wild birds are migrating south to escape the onset winter suggested here by impending night!

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