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  • The Permanence of the Young Men
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The Permanence of the Young Men

William Soutar

No man outlives the grief of war
Though he outlive its wreck:
Upon the memory a scar
Through all his years will ache.

Hopes will revive when horrors cease;
And dreaming dread be stilled;
But there shall dwell within his peace
A sadness unannulled.

Upon his world shall hang a sign
Which summer cannot hide:
The permanence of the young men
Who are not by his side.


William Soutar

from The Expectant Silence (Dakers, 1944). Also published in Into a Room: Selected Poems of William Soutar (Argyll Publishing, 2000)

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National Poetry Day 2014 war
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William Soutar1898 - 1943

William Soutar overcame his ill-health to write poetry in celebration of ‘the generosity of life’, and much verse in Scots for children.
More about William Soutar

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