Dain Do Eimhir: Poems for Eimhir (Association for Scottish Literary Studies) by Sorley Maclean

by Somhairle MacGill-Eain

Written mostly during the 1930s, this collection contains 48 love poems addressing a universal 'eimhir', or woman. At the heart of the poems is a sense of lamentation for lost love and opportunity yet they are also sharply political.

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Sorley Maclean

Reviews

[Eilidh Fyfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

u are a beauty somhairle

[Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maclean is widely heralded as Skye's great poet of the 20th century, and one of the most powerful voices writing natively in a Celtic language. Fans of Irish and Scottish myth and culture will find familiar themes thrumming beneath the surface of his verse, but he's a modern poet and writes about war, Communism, political philosophy, and being torn between love of one's land, romantic love, and the desire to serve one's country. I'm glad that during the year it took me to slowly work my way through all the poems in Gaidhlig that I read "Homage to Catalonia" for context on his struggle about the Spanish Civil War... he didn't go, but he badly wanted to. The loveliness of his work has the bloom rubbed off in places by gender role assumptions and connections that I'm not particularly fond of, but I will forgive much for thoughtful work steeped in a Celtic worldview and alluding to places I've been and legends I know.

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poets,and if you can get around the dual language aspect,it's very good.
I like to hear his work as spoken poetry,and I find it helps to know the cadence that he uses,but I just love his work.

[Katherine Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, just beautiful.

I would honestly rate his work amongst Donne and Shakespeare, the emotion that just one of his four line poems evokes is unbelievable.