Paradise Lost

Scott, Francis Reginald (1899 - 1985)

Original Text

F.R. Scott, F.R. Scott: Selected Poems (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1966): 42-43.

1Before any tree grew

2On the ground,

3Or clip of bird wing

4Made sound,

5Before cool fish drove

6Under wave,

7Or any cave man

8Made cave,

9The clean aimless worlds

10Spun true and blind

11Unseen and undisturbed

12By mind,

13Till some expanding molecule

14Of odd construction

15Learned the original sin

16Of reproduction,

17Troubling the constant flow

18With new activity,

19Something beyond the grave

20and more than gravity.

21And so in shallow bays

22And warm mud

23Began the long tale

24Of bone and blood.

25The tale of man alive

26And loth to die,

27Of mine and thine and ours,

28And the question, Why?

29This was the turn of the tide,

30The fall from heaven,

31The spear in the side of God,

32And time’s division.

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung

RPO Edition

2011

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