Life And Death

Duncan Campbell Scott 1862 (Ottawa) – 1947



I THOUGHT of death beside the lonely sea
That went beyond the limit of my sight,
Seeming the image of his mastery,
The semblance of his huge and gloomy might.

But firm beneath the sea went the great earth,
With sober bulk and adamantine hold,
The water but a mantle for her girth,
That played about her splendor fold on fold.

And life seemed like this dear familiar shore
That stretched from the wet sand’s last wavy crease,
Beneath the sea’s remote and sombre roar,
To inland stillness and the wilds of peace.

Death seems triumphant only here and there;
Life is the sovereign presence everywhere.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
33

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 598
Words 108
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 2

Duncan Campbell Scott

Duncan Campbell Scott was a Canadian bureaucrat, Canadian poet and prose writer. more…

All Duncan Campbell Scott poems | Duncan Campbell Scott Books

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