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  • In the Time of Tyrants
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In the Time of Tyrants

William Soutar

All that the hand may touch;
All that the hand may own;
Crumbles beyond time’s clutch
Down to oblivion.

Fear not the boasts which wound:
Fear not the threats which bind:
Always on broken ground
The seeds fall from the mind.

Always in darkest loam
A birthday is begun;
And from its catacomb
A candle lights the sun.


William Soutar

from In the Time of Tyrants (privately printed, 1939)

© National Library of Scotland. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland.

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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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