Owen and Sassoon: The Edinburgh Poems

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Robert Garioch, ‘On Scrievin Scots’, Scots Observer (18 February 1933) (reprinted in Lallans 18, Whitsunday 1982) Garioch had met Sorley MacLean at Edinburgh University, and poems by both appear in 17 Poems for 6d, published by Garioch (as the Chalmers Press) in early 1940. It wasn’t until 1966 that the Selected Poems appeared, followed by the Collected Poems of 1977, (both published by Macdonald). Robin Fulton updated and revised the latter as Complete Poetical Works in 1983, and also edited a new Collected Poems in 2004. He said: “Biographies of Owen often mention Edinburgh as if it was a passing episode. Yet he wrote his most powerful poems during that period. MacCaig’s life and poetry was principally divided into two parts, represented by two locales. Although he takes his reader with him on visits to New York and Italy, the locality of the bulk of his poetry is divided between two Scottish locations. His home city of Edinburgh provided contrast with his holiday home of Assynt, a remote area in the North-West of Scotland where MacCaig spent much time, especially in the summer months. The landscape and people of Assynt provided inspiration for his poetry as well as bringing MacCaig close friendships and a love for the land.

Margery Palmer McCulloch, (several chapters) in Scottish Modernism and its Contexts 1918-1959: literature, national identity and cultural exchange (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009) stanza I: The Fiery Cross glanced like a meteor round...): When a chieftain designed to summon his clan, upon any sudden or important emergency, he slew a goat, and making a cross of any light wood, scared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished them in the blood of the animal. This was called the Fiery Cross, also Crean Tarigh, or the Cross of Shame, because disobedience to what the symbol implied, inferred infamy. It was delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran full speed with it to the next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous. He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward, with equal despatch, to the next village; and thus it passed with incredible celerity through all the district which owed allegiance to the chief, and also among his allies and neighbours, if the danger was common to them. At sight of the Fiery Cross, every man, from sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms, was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms and accoutrements, to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to appear suffered the extremities of fire and sword, which were emblematically denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks upon this warlike signal. During the civil war of 1745-6, the Fiery Cross often made its circuit; and upon one occasion it passed through the whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of thirty-two miles, in three hours. You can say this is not just a war poem, it’s an Edinburgh poem bringing together the social and environmental experience of Edinburgh.

Two essays demonstrate the interconnectedness of these interests: ‘A Theory of Scots Letters’ (1923) which MacDiarmid published himself in three successive issues of his journal The Scottish Chapbook and ‘English Ascendancy in British Literature’ (1931) which T.S. Eliot published in The Criterion. In the first, MacDiarmid proposed that the language we call Scots possessed a validity in speech and a unique value in literature in its capacity to draw on the experience of its users in Scotland across generations and geographies, and in its potential in literary modernism. In the second, he compared the status of the literatures written in different languages in the British Isles with the dominance of English-language literature: Gaelic, Welsh, Scots, English (in its distinctive forms in different regions and nations), all possessed unique qualities suppressed by the dominance of English-language literature. Below is a list of poems that showcase darkness in all its forms. You can find poems that pay tribute to the night or express the burdens of death, suffering, grief, and any other negative emotions. 1. “Mirror” by Kajal Ahmad, translated by Michael R. Burch As he became older, MacCaig's fame spread and he received such honours as the O.B.E. and the Queen's Medal for Poetry, yet it was at home in Edinburgh and Assynt where he was probably most appreciated. This was evident at his 75th, 80th, and 85th birthday parties when the cream of the Scottish literati and musicians came together for readings and musical performances. I’m convinced the boys at Tynecastle High School influenced his poetry – he clearly had a good relationship with the class teacher and the boys.”

Duncan Glen, Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve) and the Scottish Renaissance (Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1964)

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Ahmad speaks of the inverse values that dictators exercise during their rule. Those who merit greatness are brought low, while those who bend to dictatorial rule flourish. My era's obscuring mirror shattered because it magnified the small and made the great seem insignificant. Dictators and monsters filled its contours. Even for those who are visitors or adoptive citizens, Edinburgh feels like a welcoming and homely city. Gordon Wright, MacDiarmid: an illustrated biography of Christopher Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) (Edinburgh: Gordon Wright Publishing, 1977) stanza XV: The dismal Coronach....): The Coronach of the Highlanders, like the Ululatus of the Romans, and the Ululoo of the Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death. The Coronach has for some years past been superseded at funerals by the use of the bagpipe, and that also is, like many other Highland peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote districts.

Though he spent much of his life and career in Edinburgh, MacCaig’s mother’s Highland ancestry was an important part of his identity, and he spent his summers in Assynt, Scotland, in the northwest Highlands. MacCaig’s poetry bears the influence of his dual upbringing: though he wrote only in English—something of an anomaly for a Scottish poet of his generation—his poetry frequently drew on the Highland landscape and Gaelic culture which he loved. His second collection in 1957 was well received; he published five more in the 1960s. He ‘talked about the Celtic feeling for form which he derived from Gaelic forebears’ (Calder). His poems are infused with a passion for clarity (possibly derived from his classical education) and, paradoxically, gained in this respect from his move away from formal verse in the 1960s to free verse.ILLE TERRARUM - Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - Edinburgh Castle, Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh, UK Joy Hendry and Raymond Ross (eds), Norman MacCaig: Critical Essays (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990) One of the major contributors to the tartan noir genre, Rankin began his writing career whilst studying English Literature at the University of Edinburgh in the 1980s. Edinburgh has provided the setting or inspiration for many novels (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images)