Frederick George Scott

COLLECTED POEMS

 

Truth

I saw Truth on the mountains, golden-shod
    With day-dawn, girt about with skies
    Of azure mist, half veiling from man’s eyes
Her silent face and gaze upturned to God.
Beneath were clouded steeps of shale and sod,
5
    Tracked deviously by feet that human-wise
    Toiled upward, but toiled vainly towards the prize;
Some following, shunning some where others trod.

Yet in the darkness oft there came, ‘I see,’
    From eager hearts I met. ‘Behold!’ men cried,
10
        Yet variously, ‘such are Truth’s features high.’
Self’s shadow, from the soul’s intensity
    Cast on the mist, not such the face I spied,
    Calm, sovereign, silent, upturned midst the sky.

1887. [Page 127]