Moontide

by Niall Campbell

This is the debut collection from one of the most distinctive lyric voices to emerge from Scotland in recent years.

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2014

About the author

Niall Campbell is a Scottish poet. His first collection, Moontide (2014), was published by Bloodaxe Books and won the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and was Saltire Book of the Year. Noctuary (2019), his second collection, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. His latest collection, The Island in the Sound was published in 2024.

He is the Poetry Editor of Poetry London and lives in Newport on Tay in Fife.

Reviews

[Léa — streetvenus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doux et mélancolique.
La poésie de Niall Campbell a la particularité d’avoir une imagerie intemporelle. Intéressant, néanmoins trop académique peut-être ?

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had great expectations of this award winning collection as it had received a lot of hype. There are some lovely moments and you can certainly feel its Scottish roots, however (for me at least) there was something lacking. That something is something I can’t quite put my finger on – the poems sound lovely and they have a moodiness and an atmosphere to them that is very Celtic and redolent of the seashore – but somehow it felt like they were all surface – there was not much depth to them. They reminded me in places of Robin Robertson’s poems in his Collection The Wrecking Light – but Robertson’s poems give the reader much more than Campbell is offering. It might be that he could have taken more risks as a writer, perhaps pushed the ideas a little further, but sadly I found that the collection became a little samey as it went on.

[Stoic_quin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book of poetry has rightly won the Edwin Morgan prize. The poems are short, but have a distinctive ebb & flow like the ocean they are named for.

Moontide is also apt, these poems have the feel of a reflection, of a recollection bring related at night.

There are wonderful turns of phrase, old rope rusting in 'after the creel fleet', the horse he 'watched drink the moon' in On Eriskay being too of my favourite examples.

There is also a sense of humour - the 'gods of Scotland' being where it is demonstrated best.

I look forward to his second collection.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely, rooted poems with a strong sense of place and people.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

They were pretty good I guess

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an exciting debut collection from a young scottish poet I can't wait to hear more from. Moontide paints a dark world of long winter nights, the restless sea, sleep and the tides with myth, song and folklore. It beautifully evokes the Island of South Uist on which the poet grew up. Campbell has a wonderfully compressed style. His short, lyrical poems work hard to cover a lot of complex ground and they reward many readings. He often evokes craftsmen and blacksmiths in his poems and the short, twisting, hard feel of the poems gives them the sense they've been forged and hammered into shape like wrought jewellery. They are both tough and ornate like Celtic artworks.
His ear is finely attuned and every poem, free or formal, has a deft and lively music behind it. His imagery is fresh and sharp and surprising:

aware of how the oilfields in the evening
are lit like our own staggered desks. (From The Work)

Like rain's own tender fossil print;
or a drowned man's blue kiss (From Sea Coins, Scottish Beach)

While Campbell does have his own unique voice to a certain extent, the shadow of other scottish poets does hang heavily over this collection, which is not unusual for a first book. There are echoes here of Robin Robertson, Kathleen Jamie, Don Paterson, and George Mackay Brown. I don't mind that at all - you get a nice sense of where he's coming from in the tradition but hopefully he will go on to become more and more his own man.
You'd also be forgiven for wondering what century these poems were written in (in terms of subject matter not form). It is ALL sea, farming, craftsmen, songs, fishermen, folklore with only the very occasional nod to the modern world. They seem strangely old fashioned for such a young poet, especially when there so many interesting, experimental voices around at the moment.
My other bugbear is the occasional slip into portentousness. Despite the obvious skill he has, he stills seems to be trying just a bit too hard at times to impress us with the gravity of his thoughts. He uses terms like:

I've been thinking too much about the night . . .

I know the feeling of the grain framer . . .

I know the thing the apple passes through
between its peak and catch . . .

I've served apprentice to a watchmaker . . .

How like a shepherd or herdsman of loss
I must have whistled . . .

I have this image of Niall wondering about South Uist, stroking his chin and looking for things to write about. There's a lot of music and thought gone into it, but just a slight disconnect when it comes to emotion. None of the poems kicked in the doors of my heart, despite their artfulness, but again, I guess that's another thing that will come with time and practice.

While I like his short, dense pieces, (The Tear in the Sack, The Work, When the Whales Beached) the poems I especially like are the ones where he lets his hair down a bit and uses a more open, free-flowing line, especially when it's combined with a cool idea that's a bit more out there. I really really like A Danse Macabre, An Introduction to the Gods of Scotland and The House by the Sea, Eriskay (where drowned sailors come back to life for a single night seeking heat and light, what's not to love about sea-zombies!)

as inside they stand open mouthed at a fire,
drying out their lungs, that hang in their chests
like sacks of black wine. (From The House by the Sea, Eriskay)

It's simple, dark and haunting and hits the mark for me more than much of his more wrought work.
It will be really interesting to see what Campbell goes on to do next. A foray into the 21st century? Or will he go on to be a modern day Mackay Brown, the next bard of the Islands?
I'm already looking forward to his next book.

[Jennifer Bernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this collection enchanting in its distinct Celtic voice, albeit with some ventures into warmer climbs.

Campbell's evocations of place are immediate - the wind is lashing, the sea is spraying and salt is on the air. The collection hangs together well, despite changes in tone and place

Altogether, an excellent first collection, hopefully with more to follow.