 
|
Frederick
George Scott
COLLECTED
POEMS
A
Song of Triumph
|
|
Ye
tempests that sweep o’er the deep, heavy-browed
with the cloud
of the rain,
Assemble in wonder with thunder and bellowing voice
of the main,
With the roar that comes forth from the North when
the ice-peaks roll
down to the sea,
And the dream of the gleaming white silence is hoarse
with waves’
laughter and glee;—
Yea, gather, ye tempests, on wings, with the strings
of God’s harp
|
5 |
| in
your hands, |
|
| And
your voices upraise in the praise of the Lord
of the seas and the
lands.
Sing
the triumph of Man, who began in the caves where
the
waves
lay asleep,
In a cradle made green by the sheen of the sunlight
that smote on the
deep,
When the ages were young and the tongue of the
universe sounded
its praise,
Over the dismal, abysmal, dark voids where God
went on His |
10 |
| ways
|
|
| To
crown His creations with nations of flowering
and animate life,—
Implanting a germ in the worm that would grow
to His image through
strife.
The
jungles that spread on the bed of the plain, where
the rain
and the snow
Came down from the mountains a river, to shiver
in torrents below,
Were alight with the bright-coloured snakes and
the tigers that |
15 |
| lurked
for their prey, |
|
| While
the bird that was heard in the boughs had a plumage
more splendid
than day,
But the lord at whose word all were humbled was
Man who in majesty
came;—
Immortal as God and who trod with his body erect
as a flame. [Page 148]
Let
the praise of Man’s form by the storm be
outrolled to the gold
of the West,
To the edge of the ledge of the clouds where the
sun marches |
20 |
| down
to his rest. |
|
| For
out of the rout of fierce famine, of warfare and
hunger and strain,
Man’s body was fashioned and passioned in
frenzy of fury and pain.
He goes with his face upon space, like a god he
is girded with might,
His desire is the fire of a star that illumines
a limitless night.
His
love is above and beneath him, a mountain and
fountain of |
25 |
|
fire; |
|
In
his blood is the flood of the tiger and claws of
its hate and
desire;
In his thought is the speed of the steed as it courses
untrammelled and free,
With its sinews astrain on the plain where the winds
are as wide
as the sea;
But his soul is the roll of the ocean that murmurs
in darkness and
day,
A part of the heart of creation that lives while
the ages decay.
|
30 |
It mounts upon wings through the rings of the night
that is bright
with the stars,
Till at length in its strength it has broken the
chains of the flesh
and its bars,
And waits for the hush and the flush of the dawn
of which God is
the sun;—
The dawn that will rise in the skies when the night
of our warfare is
done;
When Man shall behold, in the gold of the firmament
passing in
|
35 |
|
heat, |
|
| The
face of the Proved and Beloved who descends with
the stars
at His feet. [Page 149]
Then
the past shall be cast like the sand that a hand
may throw
out to the sea,
Shall be cast out of sight into night, and our
manhood,
resplendent and free,
Shall wander in dreams by the streams where the
waters are
silent as sleep,
Or winged on God’s errands shall soar through
the roar of the |
40 |
|
fathomless deep, |
|
| When
the lightning is brightening our course and the
thunder-
clouds roll in our face,—
For the soul that is pure shall endure when the
planets have
crumbled in space.
Ye
tempests that sweep from the deep which the night
and the
light overspan,
Assemble in splendour and render the praise of
magnificent Man;
In his hands are the sands of the ages, and gold
of unperishing |
45 |
|
youth, |
|
On
his brow, even now, is the shining of wisdom and
justice and
truth;
His dower was the power to prevail, on the lion
and dragon he
trod,
His birth was of earth but he mounts to a throne
in the bosom of
God. [Page 150]
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
