Frederick George Scott

COLLECTED POEMS

 

Calvary

O sorrowful heart of humanity, foiled in thy fight for dominion,
    Bowed with the burden of emptiness, blackened with passion         and woe;
Here is a faith that will bear thee on waft of omnipotent pinion,
    Up to the heaven of victory, there to be known and to know.

Here is the vision of Calvary, crowned with the world’s revelation,
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    Throned in the grandeur of gloom and the thunders that quicken         the dead;
A meteor of hope in the darkness shines forth like a new         constellation,
    Dividing the night of our sorrow, revealing a path as we tread.

Now are the portals of death by the feet of the Conqueror entered;
    Flames of the sun in his setting roll over the city of doom,
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And robe in imperial purple the Body triumphantly centred,
    Naked and white between thieves and ’mid ghosts that have         crept from the tomb.

O Soul, that art lost in immensity, craving for light and despairing,
    Here is the hand of the Crucified, pulses of love in its veins,
Human as ours in its touch, with the sinews of Deity bearing
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    The zones of the pendulous planets, the weight of the winds         and the rains. [Page 120]

Here in the Heart of the Crucified, find thee a refuge and hiding,
    Love at the core of the universe, guidance and peace in the         night;
Centuries pass like a flood, but the Rock of our Strength is         abiding,
    Grounded in depths of eternity, girt with a mantle of light.
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Lo, as we wonder and worship, the night of the doubts that         conceal Him,
    Rolls from the face of the dawn till His rays through the cloud-         fissures slope;
Vapours that hid are condensed to the dews of His grace that         reveal Him,
    And shine with His light on the hills as we mount in the
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        splendour of hope. [Page 121]