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New Selected Poems
This collection contains most of the work from Selected Poems from 1985, together with later material, such as the complete sequence of Sonnets from Scotland, and Planet Wave, a suite of ten poems covering the history of the earth from the Big Bang to the time of Copernicus.
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Edwin Morgan
180 books40 followersEdwin 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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 16, 2015
i had to read one of edwin morgan's poems for higher english a few years ago. my teacher made us dissect every line, write too many essays on it, and it was a generally bad experience.
and then this semester for my scottish literature course he appeared in my education again. this time we looked at a lot more of his poems, not going too much into depth with them, just getting the general idea and picking out key phrases. i learned more about him as a person, what his poems were about, how wide his range was. he writes about glasgow, the good parts and the bad; he writes about celebrity deaths, the loch ness monster, abortion, gender neutral love poems. he writes using wonderful eloquent phrases and he writes in sounds that don't match up but get the message across perfectly. i read the poems we were told to read and then i read all the other ones in the book too. having more freedom and actually wanting to read his poetry really improved my whole experience of edwin morgan. i think i even want to read more of his work.
and then this semester for my scottish literature course he appeared in my education again. this time we looked at a lot more of his poems, not going too much into depth with them, just getting the general idea and picking out key phrases. i learned more about him as a person, what his poems were about, how wide his range was. he writes about glasgow, the good parts and the bad; he writes about celebrity deaths, the loch ness monster, abortion, gender neutral love poems. he writes using wonderful eloquent phrases and he writes in sounds that don't match up but get the message across perfectly. i read the poems we were told to read and then i read all the other ones in the book too. having more freedom and actually wanting to read his poetry really improved my whole experience of edwin morgan. i think i even want to read more of his work.
May 26, 2019
I don't know how I managed to leave it so late to discover Edwin Morgan's poetry, but I first heard Strawberries very recently at a funeral, and the words of the poem, so evocative, so sensual and so heart-breaking under the circumstances, stayed with me for weeks afterwards. So when I received this as a Christmas present, I was utterly delighted.
The volume covers such an immense variety of poetry. there are short vignettes (which he does particularly well) such as The Woman, In Glasgow, Then there's his incredibly sensual love poetry which includes Strawberries, or At The Television Set (Take care if you kiss me, you know it doesn't die!) that leave you breathless and moved and aching. There are some incredible 'evocations' of places, not least Glasgow of course, but sort of poetic travelogues of Brazil, Provence, The Andes, and quite a lot of anthropomorphic little pieces such as The Apple’s Song, The Loch Ness Monster’s Song. Afterwards, which is set in the aftermath of Vietnam, is truly haunting and moves me to tears every time I read it (Afterwards, the prostitutes fell on lean times / some took up embroidery /one became a pearl diver and was drowned).
Morgan writes with such a natural rhythm that you read it ‘properly’ without any effort. He runs words breathlessly together, then stops you in your tracks, punches you in the gut, or wrings at your heart when you suddenly realise – there, that’s the point of this one. There are strong links with Eliot (he wrote a biography of him) but Morgan isn’t in any way derivative. Not every poem in this anthology works for me, you wouldn’t expect that, but most of them do, in so many different ways. I dip in a couple of times a week in the morning, and every time the words and the rhythm and the sentiment stay with me for the rest of the day. I utterly love this book.
The volume covers such an immense variety of poetry. there are short vignettes (which he does particularly well) such as The Woman, In Glasgow, Then there's his incredibly sensual love poetry which includes Strawberries, or At The Television Set (Take care if you kiss me, you know it doesn't die!) that leave you breathless and moved and aching. There are some incredible 'evocations' of places, not least Glasgow of course, but sort of poetic travelogues of Brazil, Provence, The Andes, and quite a lot of anthropomorphic little pieces such as The Apple’s Song, The Loch Ness Monster’s Song. Afterwards, which is set in the aftermath of Vietnam, is truly haunting and moves me to tears every time I read it (Afterwards, the prostitutes fell on lean times / some took up embroidery /one became a pearl diver and was drowned).
Morgan writes with such a natural rhythm that you read it ‘properly’ without any effort. He runs words breathlessly together, then stops you in your tracks, punches you in the gut, or wrings at your heart when you suddenly realise – there, that’s the point of this one. There are strong links with Eliot (he wrote a biography of him) but Morgan isn’t in any way derivative. Not every poem in this anthology works for me, you wouldn’t expect that, but most of them do, in so many different ways. I dip in a couple of times a week in the morning, and every time the words and the rhythm and the sentiment stay with me for the rest of the day. I utterly love this book.
April 10, 2009
Greatest Scottish Poet EVER! Wide-ranging collection. Read "Trio" or his instamatic poems.
April 11, 2018
Interesting experiments in language as art: the writer's creativity enthrals. This collection brings together poems from 1952-97 and show work as diverse as the Instamatic Poems, Glasgow Sonnets and Planet Wave. This collection showcases the poetry of a poet that never tired of the most important work of all.
February 11, 2023
Great collection!
September 15, 2011
Actually the book is the New Selected Poems, but as the book is now over 10 years old, that New can be a little confusing!
Edwin Morgan was Scotland's greatest poet, who died last year at the age of 90. He was an incredibly versatile poet and could move with great ease between sonnets and experimental form and subjects varying from tender love poems to science fiction, poems about the history of Scotland and a poem in the voice of the Loch Ness Monster.
New Selected Poems showcases the whole range of his talents. I love the surrealism of many of his poems, as in From the Video Box: 25 - an imagining of the televising of the world jigsaw finals:
.............But what I liked best
was the last shot of the completed sea
filling the screen; then the saw lines disappeared,
till almost imperceptibly the surface moved
Although he didn't write often about nature, Morgan did have a fine sense of the natural world, as shown in An Abandoned Culvert:
The daffodils sang shrill within the culvert.
Their almost acid notes amazed the darkness
and he could write a good campaigning environmental poem too as in The White Rhinoceros which proves that poetry doesn't need to rant to make a campaigning point:
and the safety catches started to click in the thickets
for more. Run holy hide - take up your armour-
Run - white horn, tin clown, crown of rain woods
Morgan is best known perhaps for both his science fiction poetry and his love poetry. His science fiction poetry is very clever and often highly entertaining such as The First Men on Mercury, in which the voices of the earthlings and the Mercurians move closer and closer together, until they can barely be distinguished and eventually change still further so that the Mercurians are speaking English and the earthlings are speaking gibberish.
Edwin Morgan was Scotland's greatest poet, who died last year at the age of 90. He was an incredibly versatile poet and could move with great ease between sonnets and experimental form and subjects varying from tender love poems to science fiction, poems about the history of Scotland and a poem in the voice of the Loch Ness Monster.
New Selected Poems showcases the whole range of his talents. I love the surrealism of many of his poems, as in From the Video Box: 25 - an imagining of the televising of the world jigsaw finals:
.............But what I liked best
was the last shot of the completed sea
filling the screen; then the saw lines disappeared,
till almost imperceptibly the surface moved
Although he didn't write often about nature, Morgan did have a fine sense of the natural world, as shown in An Abandoned Culvert:
The daffodils sang shrill within the culvert.
Their almost acid notes amazed the darkness
and he could write a good campaigning environmental poem too as in The White Rhinoceros which proves that poetry doesn't need to rant to make a campaigning point:
and the safety catches started to click in the thickets
for more. Run holy hide - take up your armour-
Run - white horn, tin clown, crown of rain woods
Morgan is best known perhaps for both his science fiction poetry and his love poetry. His science fiction poetry is very clever and often highly entertaining such as The First Men on Mercury, in which the voices of the earthlings and the Mercurians move closer and closer together, until they can barely be distinguished and eventually change still further so that the Mercurians are speaking English and the earthlings are speaking gibberish.
December 11, 2015
I was required to read some Edwin Morgan poetry for my Scottish Literature class while I'm studying here in Glasgow. I wasn't required to read the whole thing but before I knew it I found myself devouring this poetry. Some silly, some poetic, some chilling, some dark, some light. Every kind of form - rhyming, free verse, etc. short long bladeebladee - the poetry was just so good! I found myself gasping at parts. Can language be this beautiful? YES. Some writers can put words to the unspeakable. It's amazing.
The only part that was really difficult for me were the Scotland sonnets - only because they included so many place names in Scotland and historical references that I'm not as familiar with as I'd like to be. I probably didn't understand this entire section - although I tried. But for the most part his poetry is really accessible. I'm glad that I read the entire book!
The only part that was really difficult for me were the Scotland sonnets - only because they included so many place names in Scotland and historical references that I'm not as familiar with as I'd like to be. I probably didn't understand this entire section - although I tried. But for the most part his poetry is really accessible. I'm glad that I read the entire book!
March 3, 2012
This is simply the BEST introductory collection of Morgan's poems that there is. It has a tiny bit of almost every style he ever used, giving it a wide variety of poems.
Morgan is a most accessible poet, never dry or stuffy. He's very inventive and playful, yet his works are often profound.
Many Americans know absolutely nothing of this fabulous poet. If you enjoy poetry, this book is a good place to begin to get to know Edwin Morgan.
Morgan is a most accessible poet, never dry or stuffy. He's very inventive and playful, yet his works are often profound.
Many Americans know absolutely nothing of this fabulous poet. If you enjoy poetry, this book is a good place to begin to get to know Edwin Morgan.
September 9, 2021
Insofar as one ever 'finishes' reading a poetry book, this, after five years beside my bed, can be said to have been so. Bought, when in a poetry mood, after reading a quote elsewhere, this was a densely-packed and varied mix, with several heart-breaking observations.
Read for a second time over a twelvemonth, and a dozen or so I found moving and significant.
Read for a second time over a twelvemonth, and a dozen or so I found moving and significant.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews