WILLIAM Soutar's lines are honed to an austere perfection, totally in keeping with his subject-matter.
The piece was first published in Poems in Scots and English by William Soutar (Oliver and Boyd, 1961) and has been anthologised in volumes including The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (EUP, 2005).
WINTER BEAUTY
Even in winter earth is lovely still,
Bared almost to the bone:
The clean anatomy of tree and hill;
The honesty of stone:
In ultimate endurance under the touch
Of fingering wind and frost:
Withered into a beauty beyond smutch
When all but all is lost:
An incorruptible and patient grace
From bravery forsworn:
The steadfastness upon an aged face
Out of long sufferance born.
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