Selected Poems

by Frederick George Scott

 

MY LATTICE

 
MY lattice looks upon the North,
    The winds are cool that enter;
At night I see the stars come forth,
    Arcturus in the centre.

The curtain down my casement drawn
5
    Is dewy mist, which lingers
Until my maid, the rosy dawn,
    Uplifts it with her fingers.

The sparrows are my matin-bell,
    Each day my heart rejoices,
10
When, from the trellis where they dwell,
    They call me with their voices.

Then, as I dream with half-shut eye,
    Without a sound or motion,
To me that little square of sky
15
    Becomes a boundless ocean. [Page 14]

And straight my soul unfurls its sails
    That blue sky-sea to sever,
My fancies are the noiseless gales
     That waft it on for ever.
20

I sail into the depths of space
    And leave the clouds behind me,
I pass the old moon’s hiding-place,
    The sun’s rays cannot find me.

I sail beyond the solar light,
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    Beyond the constellations,
Across the voids where loom in sight
    New systems and creations.

I pass great worlds of silent stone,
    Whence light and life have vanished,
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Which wander on to tracts unknown,
    In lonely exile banished.

I meet with spheres of fiery mist
    Which warm me as I enter,
Where—ruby, gold and amethyst—
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    The rainbow lights concentre.

And on I sail into the vast,
    New wonders aye discerning,
Until my mind is lost at last,
    And, suddenly returning,
40

I feel the wind which, cool as dew,
    Upon my face is falling,
And see again my patch of blue
     And hear the sparrows calling. [Page 15]