Poem by Duncan Campbell Scott

Enigma

Some men are born to gather women’s tears,
To give a harbour to their timorous fears,
To take them as the dry earth takes the rain,
As the dark wood the warm wind from the plain;
Yet their own tears remain unshed,
Their own tumultuous fears unsaid,
And, seeming steadfast as the forest and the earth
Shaken are they with pain.
They cry for voice as earth might cry for the sea
Or the wood for consuming fire;
Unanswered they remain
Subject to the sorrows of women utterly -
Heart and mind,
Subject as the dry earth to the rain
Or the dark wood to the wind.

1. Above St. Irénée
2. Meditation at Perugia
3. The Wood-Spring to the Poet
4. To a Canadian Aviator Who Died for his Country in France
5. The Sea by the Wood

Edgar Poe Enigma ("The noblest name in Allegory's page")

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