Selected Poems

by Frederick George Scott

 

ON THE THRESHOLD

 
Throw wide thy gates, O Ageless Mystery,
Prone on thy threshold and outworn am I,
Baffled by lonely winds and heartless sky
                And restless seas
                Never at ease;
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I seek the ultimate truth
                Not found in Youth.

Remove those bars ’gainst which I press my face;
Unfold that vision which the eyes of space
Gaze at continually, as the star-clouds race
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                Across the infinite
                Dark paths of light.

Attune my ear to catch the silent song
Of myriad-teeming life, pulsing along
                From living soul to soul
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                Seeking some baffling goal.

Lead me beyond the garnerings of death
Who is the universe’s vital breath,
                And wrecks all forms
                With tides and storms,
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Till I can touch the mighty moulding hand
On whose great palm star-systems lie like sand. [Page 106]
Break down all barriers which my thought confine.
                Till I behold at last,
                Out of the vast,
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                Chaotic order shine.

Then shall I grasp, unvolumed and sublime,
The eternal poem in the heart of time,
Its mighty rhythm, its stupendous rhyme—
The epic pathos of the infinite Will
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                Supreme and still. [Page 107]