* * * * *
"Yes, my heart it lies beyond, dear,
Where that sun is burning low,
And were you not so fond, dear,
I might perhaps—but no!
Are you weary already with walking?
And tears! What tears, dear, too!
How selfish of me to be talking,
My darling, in this way to you!"
One of the most widely known and frequently quoted of the poems of Canon Scott is the Van Elsen:
"God spake three times and saved Van Elsen's soul:
He spake by illness first, and made him whole;
Van Elsen heard Him not,
Or soon forgot.
"God spake to him by wealth; the world outpoured
Its treasures at his feet, and called him lord;
Van Elsen's heart grew fat
And proud thereat.
"God spake the third time when the great world smiled,
And in the sunshine slew his little child;
Van Elsen like a tree
Fell hopelessly.
"Then in the darkness came a Voice which said:
'As thy heart bleedeth, so My heart hath bled;
As I have need of thee
Thou needest Me.'
"That night Van Elsen kissed the baby feet,
And kneeling by the narrow winding-sheet,
Praised Him with fervent breath
Who conquered death."
Canon Scott, who may well be recognised as the most spiritual of Canadian poets, has published five volumes of poems, The Soul's Quest, My Lattice and Other Poems, The Unnamed Lake, Poems Old and New, and In the Battle Silences, Poems Written at the Front. There is a depth of thought, an appealing grace and tenderness of feeling in his work that insures his poems a treasured place in Canadian life.
Duncan Campbell Scott has the fascination of the spontaneous singer, and how all the entrancement of the Dominion is caught into these lines: