Duncan Campbell Scott

TO M. E. S.The bay is set with ashy sails,
With purple shades that fade and flee,
And curling by in silver wales,
The tide is straining from the sea.The grassy points are slowly drowned,…

O ship incoming from the
With all your cloudy tower of sail,
Dashing the water to the lee,
And leaning grandly to the gale,

Now the November skies,
And the clouds that are thin and gray,
That drop with the wind away;
A flood of sunlight rolls,

A
IN in the morning,
In the morning early,
Sang a song of warning,"There'll be rain, there'll be rain."Very

The Father.  The Child.  Death.  Angels.
Two Travellers.          *      *      *      *
The even settles still and deep,
In the cold sky the last gold burns

Last night a storm fell on the world
From heights of drouth and heat,
The surly clouds for weeks were furled,
The air could only sway and beat,The beetles clattered at the blind,…

Here at the roots of the mountains,
Between the sombre legions of cedars and tamaracks,
The rapids charge the ravine:
A little light, cast by foam under starlight,

February 23, 1921.
Read at Hart House Theatre before the University of Toronto. The Muse is stern unto her favoured sons, Giving to some the keys of all the joy Of the green earth, but holding even that joy Back from their life; Bidding them…

All my life long I heard the step
Of some one I would know,
Break softly in upon my days
And lightly come and go.A foot so brisk I said must bear…

(Aetat Six)Now every night we light the
And I sit up till _really_ late;
My Father sits upon the right,
My Mother on the left, and

Far in the east the rain-clouds sweep and harry,
Down the long haggard hills, formless and low,
Far in the west the shell-tints meet and marry,
Piled gray and tender blue and roseate snow;…

The moon, Capella, and the Pleiades
Silver the river’s grey uncertain floor;
Only a heron haunts the grassy shore;
A fox barks sharply in the cedar trees;…

Here in the midnight, where the dark mainland and
Shadows mingle in shadow deeper, profounder,
Sing we the hymns of the churches, while the dead
Whispers before us.

You had two girls -- Baptiste --
One is Virginie --
Hold hard -- Baptiste!
Listen to me.The whole drive was jammed…

I have seen things that charmed the heart to rest:
Faint moonlight on the towers of ancient towns,
Flattering the soul to dream of old renowns;
The first clear silver on the mountain

A deep bell that links the downs
To the drowsy air;
Every loop of sound that swoons,
Finds a circle fair,…

There’s a town where shadows run
In the sparkle and the blue,
By the river and the sun
Swept and flooded thro’ and thro’.There the sailor trolls a song,…

Here in the inmost of the master's
This violet crisp with early
Has come to leave her beauty and to
With all her vivid hue.

Lay him down where the fern is thick and fair.
Fain was he for life, here lies he low:
With the blood washed clean from his brow and his beautiful hair,
Lay him here in the dell where the orchids grow.Let the birch-bark torches roar in the gloom,…

Under the sky without a
The long, ripe, rippling of the grain;
Light, broadcast from the golden
Over the blackberry fences floats.

Crown her with stars, this angel of our planet,
Cover her with morning, this thing of pure delight,
Mantle her with midnight till a mortal cannot
See her for the garments of the light and the night.How far I wandered, worlds away and far away,…

IN the smithy it began:
Let's make something for a man!
Hear the bellows belch and roar,
Splashing light on roof and floor:

Dawn-cool, dew-cool
Gleams the surface of my pool
Bird haunted, fern enchanted,
Where but tempered spirits rule;…

The stars are in the ebon sky,
Burning, gold, alone;
The wind roars over the rolling earth,
Like water over a stone.We are like things in a river-bed…