Abstract: This paper investigated the relationship between viscoelasticity and energy absorption characteristics of scotch pine wood by across-compression creep tests. The results showed that the stress-strain curve occupied three typical regions when scotch pine was across compressed with load in radial direction. The second region in the stree-strain curve, a plateau, embodied good characteristics of energy absorption. A four-elements model could be used to study the creep performance of scotch pine in short term. When the stress increased, the instantaneous elastic modulus, delayed elastic modulus and glutinous coefficient of the Kelvin model all increased. On the contrary, the glutinous coefficient of the Maxwell model and relaxation time decreased with increasing stress level. In creep test, when the stress levels increased, the energy absorption ability of scotch pine increased correspondingly, but the cushioning coefficient decreased.