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Selected
Poems
by
Frederick George Scott
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NATURE'S
RECOMPENSE
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WITH
barren heart and weary mind,
I wander from the haunts of men,
And strive in solitude to find
The careless joys of youth again.
I seek the long-loved woodland brook,
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I watch
the clouds when day is done,
I climb the mountain top and look,
All-eager, at the rising sun.
I plunge into the forest glade,
Untrodden yet by human feet,
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And,
loitering through the light and shade,
I hear the birds their songs repeat.
But all in vain, they will not come—
Those voices that I knew of old;
Great Nature’s lips to me are dumb,
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15 |
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heart to me is dead and cold.
In vain I lie upon her breast
And ask her for the dreams I seek,
She takes no pity on my quest,
I cannot force her lips to speak.
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Then, haply, in a calm despair
I give up seeking, and I lie,
All-thoughtless, in the woodland air
And ’neath the leaf-bespangled
sky. [Page 13]
And then it comes, the voice of old,
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Which
soothes the realms of death and birth,
The message through the ages told,
The cradle song of Mother Earth.
And as it thrills each languid sense
And lifts me from the world apart,
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30 |
Great
Nature makes full recompense
For her past coldness to
my heart. [Page 14]
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