Words

Frederick George Scott 1861 (Montreal, Quebec) – 1944 (Quebec City, Quebec)



WORDS are but passing symbols of the deep
    Crying unto deep in individual souls.
    And men are words on the great voice that rolls
Through Nature, since that morn when from their sleep
The elements heard, and they who vigil keep
5
    On Heaven's battlements, to distant poles
    Re-echoed, "Let light be!"—such voice as tolls
The birth and death of all who laugh or weep.
Not uniform, but in a wondrous plan,
    Each diverse from his fellows, symbol each
10
        Of varying thought in the eternal mind.
Now at the feet of every age of man
    We sit and learn. Haply, in perfect speech
        Its voice will be God's message to our kind.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
94

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAACBBADECFDEF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 644
Words 116
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16

Frederick George Scott

Frederick George Scott was a Canadian poet and author, known as the Poet of the Laurentians. He is sometimes associated with Canada's Confederation Poets, a group that included Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. Scott published 13 books of Christian and patriotic poetry. Scott was a British imperialist who wrote many hymns to the British Empire—eulogizing his country's roles in the Boer Wars and World War I. Many of his poems use the natural world symbolically to convey deeper spiritual meaning. Frederick George Scott was the father of poet F. R. Scott. more…

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