Selected Poems

by William Dunbar, Harriet Harvey Wood (Editor)

This collection of medieval poems is full of the same virility, elegiac power, eroticism, and satire that colored the life of celebrated Scottish poet William Dunbar. An introduction and extensive notes on his life and works, including his career as a priest and his royal employment, are also included.

Genres: Poetry, Scotland, Medieval, Classics, British Literature

136 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

About the author

William Dunbar (born 1459 or 1460 - died by 1530) was a Scottish Makar poet active in the late fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century. He was closely associated with the court of King James IV and produced a large body of work in Scots distinguished by its great variation in themes and literary styles. He was probably a native of East Lothian.

From 1500, Dunbar was employed at the court of James IV in a role for which he received an annual pension. His duties are not recorded; but it is to this period that the bulk of his poetry can be dated. Several of Dunbar's poems were included in the Chepman and Myllar prints of 1508, the first books to be printed in Scotland.

Reviews

[Manny]

Our plesance heir is all vane glory,
This fals warld is bot transitory,
The flesche is brukle, the Fend is sle;
Timor mortis conturbat me

The stait of man dois change and vary,
Now sound, now seik, now blith, now sary,
Now dansand mery, now like to dee;
Timor mortis conturbat me

No stait in erd her standis sickir;
As with the wynd wavis the wickir,
Wavis this warldis vanite;
Timor mortis conturbat me

[Peter Aronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interlinear translation works very well here, giving you the meaning and the look of the original poems at the same time. Alas, it does nothing for the pronunciation, which is not discussed except for a reference to a rather technical and academic book. This is somewhat frustrating when the translator's introduction tells us this poem is lyrical or that poem demands to be sung. But still a nice translation of a poet whose works should be better well known.