William Soutar
William Soutar Poems
Ayont the Caller Fountain
Whan gowks were in the schaw,
We gether'd the wild roses
That were sae white and sma';
...
End is in beginning;
And in beginning end:
Death is not loss, nor life winning;
But each and to each is friend.
...
They delv'd a saft hole
For Johnnie McNeel:
He aye had been droll
But folk likit him weel.
...
A skelp frae his teacher
For a’ he cudna spell:
A skelp frae his mither
For cowpin owre the kale.
...
O luely, luely, cam she in
And luely she lay doun:
I kent her be her caller lips
And jer breists sae sma' and roun'.
...
Nae man wha loves the lawland tongue
but warstles wi' the thoucht-
there are mair sangs that bide unsung
nor a' that hae been wroucht.
...
He who weeps for beauty gone
Hangs about his neck a stone.
He who mourns for his lost youth
...
Whan I haik't up to Craigie Hill
And lookit east and west;
'In a' the world,' said I to mysel',
'My ain shire is the best.'
...
Spindle-shank gangs owre the flair
Wi’ his ae leg in the air:
Shaks his pow outside the door
Whan his hair is fou o’ stour.
...
Cuddle-doun my bairnie
The dargie day is dune:
Yon’s a siller sternie
Ablow the siller mune.
...
Atween the world o' licht
And the world that is to be
A man wi' unco sicht
Sees whaur he canna see:
...
Braw are the Grampian Mountains
Whan simmer licht is still;
And gowdan are the Carse-lands
Ablow the Corsie Hill.
...
Steepies for the barnie
Sae moolie in the mou':
Parritch for a strappan lad
To mak his beard grow.
...
Wha hasna turn'd inby a sunny street
And fund alang its length nae folk were there;
And heard his step fa' steadily and clear
...
Out of the darkness of the womb
Into a bed, into a room:
Out of a garden into a town,
...
Fa' owre, fa' owre, my hinny,
There's mony a weary airt;
And nae end to the traikin,
...
William Soutar Biography
William Soutar was a Scottish poet, born 1898. He served in the navy in World War I, and afterwards studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he encountered the work of Hugh MacDiarmid. This led to a radical alteration in his work, and he became a leading poet of the Scottish Literary Renaissance and 'one of the greatest poets Scotland has produced'. In 1924, he was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. From 1930 he was bedridden. He died of tuberculosis in 1943. His journal, Diary of a Dying Man, was published posthumously and is considered to 'put him into the rank of the great diarists' One form of verse which he used was the cinquain (now known as American cinquain),these he labelled epigrams. He took up this form in the second half of the 1930s with such enthusiasm that he became an even more prolific practitioner than Adelaide Crapsey had been.)
The Best Poem Of William Soutar
The Quiet
Ayont the Caller Fountain
Whan gowks were in the schaw,
We gether'd the wild roses
That were sae white and sma';
And kent they süne wud fa'.
We gether'd the wild roses,
And heard on yon hillside
The burn rin to the water
That was baith deep and wide,
And taen it to the tide.
Whaur are the merry faces;
The herts that aince were dear?
Listen! there is a quiet
Steady ablow a' steer:
The sang we didna hear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beyond the fresh fountain
When cuckoos were in the wood
We gathered the wild roses
That were so white and small
And we knew they soon would fall.
We gathered the wild roses
And heard upon that hillside
The stream run with the water
That was both deep and wide
And carry it to the tide.
Where are the merry faces;
The hearts that once were dear?
Listen! There is a quiet,
Steady below the commotion,
Is the song we did not hear.
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