A Book of Lives

by Edwin Morgan

Containing poems written by Edwin Morgan during the past six years, this collection looks at human life from a variety of perspectives, encompassing a range of themes, the foremost of which is history. This new work displays the author's characteristic willingness to experiment with a variety of subjects, from the history of cancer to the new Scottish parliament.

Genres: Poetry, Scotland

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Edwin George Morgan OBE was a Scottish poet and translator who is associated with the Scottish literary renaissance. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost Scottish poets of the 20th century. In 1999, Morgan was made the first Glasgow Poet Laureate. In 2004, he was named as the first Scottish national poet: The Scots Makar.

Reviews

[Jordan Phizacklea-Cullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterly final offering from the great Scots Makar, taking in topical subjects such as Scottish independence and 9/11 amongst familiar themes of first love and closeted sexuality. Throughout, Morgan's idiosyncratic voice is as recognisable as ever and makes this a fine swansong to a remarkable oeuvre.

[Kristiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Almost a 3 but the final few poems about Morgan’s view on women who choose not to have children were disappointing. Morgan is a talented poet but the collection just merged into a tiresome read. Lacked a cohesive structure.

[Kate Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every so often, a collection of poems comes along which warrants closing the door, leaving emails unread and the phone unanswered to read it from cover to cover. Book of Lives is one such book. As Scotland’s Makar, it’s pretty much expected that anything written by Edwin Morgan will be impressive, but this collection is far more than that. Tremendous in scope, it rampages through the bloodshed and battlefield of Bannockburn; drifts with delight through “the blue glow of starlight lapislazuliing the dust-grains” of the big bang; flies alongside Sputnik; laughs at the poet squatting over a hole-in-the-ground train toilet; manages to make the Scottish Parliament splendid; and listens in on a conversation in Palestine.

Sorrowful, playful, teasing, funny, and yearning, Love and a Life, with its startling tales of the everyday, is the most moving. Then, from the short and sweet Valentine Weather to the monumentally tragic Twin Towers, Morgan’s lives can almost be heard breathing as he brings to life their tales. Rimbaud lies in agony, longing for Verlaine while “poetry burned in him like radium”; Darwin is delighted by finches in the Galapagos; the citizens of Leningrad starve in the siege; Morgan is overjoyed at the removal of scaffolding outside his flat; Boethius waits for death in prison; a cancerous cell and a normal cell, Gorgo and Beau, converse; and an old woman delights in Drambuie and a duet on her 94th birthday.

I recommend you shut the door on your own world and immerse yourself in his.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many people I was lucky to be introduced to Edwin Morgan's poetry at school, but have enjoyed reading his work ever since. A Book of lives was published not long before his death, but even in his later years, suffering with his well publicised illness, his humour and insights are as noteworthy as ever. I particularly liked the sequence of poems on the history of the Earth, originally written for a jazz festival and set to music, which rings out from the written word, his poems on 'five paintings' and the autobiographical sequence at the end of the book - imprisoned behind temporary scaffolding, remembering past days and loves.

[Stantontas]

Didn't really get into this. Some nice stuff, a lot of banal political stuff. He must have done better stuff than this?