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Selected Poems
A dedicated nationalist, yet at the same time a lifelong communist, the author brought about an extraordinary renaissance in Scots culture. His verse springs from a socialized consciousness and a vision of international modernism.
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First published January 1, 1934
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About the author
Hugh MacDiarmid
199 books20 followersChristopher Murray Grieve, known by his pen name, Hugh MacDiarmid, was a Scottish poet and cultural activist.
MacDiarmid was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century. Unusually for a first generation modernist, he was a communist; unusually for a communist, he was a committed Scottish nationalist. He wrote in English and literary Scots (sometimes referred to as Lallans).
MacDiarmid was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century. Unusually for a first generation modernist, he was a communist; unusually for a communist, he was a committed Scottish nationalist. He wrote in English and literary Scots (sometimes referred to as Lallans).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 31, 2015
MacDiarmid wrote some of the most pellucid, charming and lilting lyrics in Scots and was probably the finest writer of the living, integrally sensuous iambic pentamer stanza since Arnold. (A dip into 'North of the Tweed' in _To Circumjack Cencrastus_ will confirm this). Five years or so into a forty-plus year poetic career, he rejected his gifts to pen a series of fiercely doctrinaire, verbally knotty paeans to Lenin and Communism. Though from the Borders, he imbibes fully--though not uncritically--of a Glaswegian spirit of male violence, nose-thumbing at authority and callousness towards women.
A lot of interpersonal interaction, with his mother, father, wife and religious elders, is presumed in MacDiarmid's poems, but isn't their immediate subject. His socialism never negates, though may be taken to try to comprehend, a Christian tenderness towards the Christ-child. He became separated from his own children--for good or ill who can say, he muses--on his divorce from their mother. MacDiarmid rarely describes visual or sensory experience directly, more often making the perception, for instance, of the white streaks on a flower a metaphor--in one case, for his semen. His proudly rebarbative socialist poems always have something admirable about them, perhaps their learning, the chewiness of their prosody or sonic textures, or the thoroughness of their commitment to poetry. MacDiarmid also threw over Scots on doctrinaire grounds, though the best English lines of the post-1935 verse seem conceived, 'heard', in Scots. A deliberately unlovely writer, MacDiarmid may be finest in his responsiveness to dim effects of light, especially at night, and the changes of the Scottish weather.
A lot of interpersonal interaction, with his mother, father, wife and religious elders, is presumed in MacDiarmid's poems, but isn't their immediate subject. His socialism never negates, though may be taken to try to comprehend, a Christian tenderness towards the Christ-child. He became separated from his own children--for good or ill who can say, he muses--on his divorce from their mother. MacDiarmid rarely describes visual or sensory experience directly, more often making the perception, for instance, of the white streaks on a flower a metaphor--in one case, for his semen. His proudly rebarbative socialist poems always have something admirable about them, perhaps their learning, the chewiness of their prosody or sonic textures, or the thoroughness of their commitment to poetry. MacDiarmid also threw over Scots on doctrinaire grounds, though the best English lines of the post-1935 verse seem conceived, 'heard', in Scots. A deliberately unlovely writer, MacDiarmid may be finest in his responsiveness to dim effects of light, especially at night, and the changes of the Scottish weather.
August 28, 2025
Sangschaw and Penny Wheep are very good—I love the astronomical imagery—but in many ways they should be seen as trial runs for A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. And after A Drunk Man MacDiarmid never again used his considerable talent productively enough: a combination of isolation, stubbornness, and insufficient self-criticism meant that subsequently he produced a few lines worth reading but not anything bigger that ought to have lasted. I fear that it has lasted only for crudely political reasons: Scottish (nationalist) critics badly want the ‘great Scottish (nationalist) poet’ to have actually been great, not merely good-with-squandered-potential. And while Sorley MacLean actually was great, most people can’t read him, so MacDiarmid gets slotted into the role.
June 24, 2021
This collection is “Sprawlin’ in shapeless shapes a’ airts,/ Like ony splash that ony man can mak’/ Frae his nose or throat or other pairts,/ Fantastic as ink through blottin’-paper rins.” (“Harry Semen”) MacDiarmid is “a singer after the fashion/ Of my people—a poet of passion,” whose poems are as rugged as the Scottish landscape and as blustery as its weather. The later poems often wax prosaic and polemical, even somewhat maniacal (e.g., “To a Friend and Fellow Poet”!) as if he were possessed by his muse.
Favorite Poems:
“The Progress of Poetry”
“The Kind of Poetry I Want”
“In the Fall”
Favorite Poems:
“The Progress of Poetry”
“The Kind of Poetry I Want”
“In the Fall”
December 31, 2012
It's getting harder these days to find MacDiarmid, and there just isn't enough of him in this wee collection. Someone get him onto Gutenberg!
March 2, 2016
3.5
Oh he was a wild one! :)
Oh he was a wild one! :)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews