literature

200d

‘The tale of Genji’
A beautifully wrought, truncated version of the world’s first novel.

“The Tale of Genji,” one of the foundational works of Japanese literature, was written 1,000 years ago and is more than 1,000 pages long. Penned over the course of a decade or so by Murasaki Shikibu, it is widely considered the world’s first novel. It’s also a landmark of women’s world literature.

by Neely Tucker

https://lcm.loc.gov/issue/january-february-2026/the-tale-of-genji/

The tale of Genji at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66057

#books #literature

Fragment of an emaki from the 12th century Genji Monogatari. H 21.8 x W 23.4cm. Paper decorated with gold. The author of the painting belonged to the upper court during the Heian period; it would be Fujiwara Takashino or Takayoshi (藤原隆能,? 1126 -1174?).

The text is written in hiragana in the sōgana (草仮名) cursive style — an extremely fluid, abbreviated form that was considered the height of aristocratic elegance at the Heian court. It was known as onnade (女手, "women's hand"), the feminine script associated with court literature, as opposed to the more formal Chinese-derived kanji used in official documents by men.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji#/media/File:Genji_emaki_01003_002.jpg

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202d

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Is Known as the Woman Behind the Suffrage Movement. A New Book Reveals the Story Behind Her Tenacity

Her role as a historic hero or villain depends on the movement in question, but looking at her as a mother and daughter adds depth to her legend

by Lucia Graves

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/elizabeth-cady-stanton-known-woman-behind-suffrage-movement-new-book-reveals-tenacity-180988092/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

Elizabeth Stanton at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3186

#books #literature #feminism

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)

A sepia-toned portrait photograph of Elizabeth Stanton seated and turned slightly to one side. She has a full head of white curly hair, cropped close to the head, with a small dark cap or ornament perched at the top. A long dark lace veil falls from the cap over her shoulder and drapes across her lap. She wears a dark dress with a lighter collar or chemise visible at the neckline, and a long string of dark beads around her neck. Her hands rest quietly in her lap, one slightly over the other. Her expression is composed and direct, with a calm, self-possessed dignity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cady_Stanton#/media/File:Elizabeth_Stanton.jpg

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202d

Escape to the tailored suit,
the pan-loaf speech,
the benefits of higher education…

—“Kailyard & After” by William Neill (1922–2010), b. #OTD, 22 Feb. He wrote poetry in all three of Scotland’s languages & was an active campaigner for Scots & Gaelic

A 🎂 🧵

1/4

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #minoritylanguage

William Neill
Kailyard and After

When I wes wee I hud tae dae ma share
mulkan the kye wi the weemin in the byre;
I mind hou I wad scoosh lang streeman jaups
that loupit in the luggie makkin froth
rise oot frae yon rich deeps.

The douce kye skelpit roon thaim wi their tails
tae dicht the flees aff; whiles they’d cotch yir lug
a fair bit ding: ye’d sweir ablo yir braith.
An whiles the wilder yins wad try tae pit
their fit intil the luggie an caa ye oot
on tae the settles, luggie, stuil an aa …
an gin ye didna sett in ticht eneuch
there ye wad be, rubbin a sair hainch
a loch o mulk aboot ye in the grup,
the auld dug barkan an the weemin lauchan
tae see yir breeks aa smoort wi mulk an sharn.
Man, whit a contrast tae ma life-style nou …
nae dungarees, nae luggie and nae kye.

Escape to the tailored suit,
the pan-loaf speech,
the benefits of higher education,
the dull rewards of strict conformity.

O what a fall was there, my countrymen.

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202d

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the School of English, University of St Andrews are offering a Joseph Bell Writer’s residency. The residency is open to writers or researchers in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, screenplay, literary and/or historical scholarship, life-writing and medical humanities.

Closing date: 12 noon, 6 March 2026

https://www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/7234/0/464724/889/joseph-bell-writer-in-residence-at-the-royal-college-of-surgeons-of-edinburgh-and-the-school-of-english-university-of-st-andrews

#Scottish #literature #writers #medicalhumanities #fiction #nonfiction #poetry #drama #screenplay #screenwriting

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1y

How Charlotte Brontë’s Shyness Helped Make Her a Storyteller

Graham Watson Explores the Influence of Friendship and Community on the Author of "Jane Eyre"

https://lithub.com/how-charlotte-brontes-shyness-helped-make-her-a-storyteller?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01K2CED7J9W60YZV9A42BS1BPC&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Charlotte Brontë at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/408

#Books #literature

An idealised posthumous portrait of Charlotte Brontë by Duyckinick, 1873, based on a drawing by George Richmond.

The image is a bust-length portrait, showing Charlotte Brontë turned slightly to one side, her gaze directed thoughtfully into the distance. Her features are softened and regularised — large, luminous eyes, a delicate nose, and a small, composed mouth.

Her hair is parted in the centre, drawn back smoothly and arranged in modest waves or coils. She is dressed in a dark gown with a white collar or fichu, rendered with simple elegance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB#/media/File:Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB.jpg

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1y

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wanted to ‘bid farewell’ to writing at 22, letter reveals

Young poet details low mood and disappointment in love in 1795 letter, written not long before he met Wordsworth

By Steven Morris

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/aug/08/samuel-taylor-coleridge-letter-quitting-writing-22?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01K2CED7J9W60YZV9A42BS1BPC&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Samuel Taylor Coleridge at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/95

#books #literature

1795 portrait of SamuelTaylorColeridge by Peter Vandyke.

This is a bust-length oil portrait showing Coleridge in three-quarter view, turned slightly to his right. His youthful face is smooth and fresh, with soft, rounded features — full lips, a straight nose, and bright, thoughtful eyes. His curly, light-brown hair frames his face and falls loosely.

Coleridge wears a dark coat over a waistcoat, with a high white cravat tied in a large, soft knot at his neck.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SamuelTaylorColeridge.jpg

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1y

Now westlin winds, and slaught’ring guns
Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather;
And the moorcock springs, on whirring wings,
Amang the blooming heather…

—Robert Burns, “Song, Composed in August”
First published in POEMS, CHIEFLY IN THE SCOTTISH DIALECT (Kilmarnock, 1786)

Pages digitised by the National Library of Scotland

1/3

https://digital.nls.uk/poems-chiefly-in-the-scottish-dialect/archive/74464614#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=230&xywh=-1574%2C0%2C5647%2C4185

#Scottish #literature #poetry #song #RobertBurns #18thcentury #nature #environment

SONG
composed in August

Tune, I had a horse, I had nae mair

Now westlin winds and slaught'ring guns
Bring Autumn's pleasant weather;

And the moorcock springs on whirring wings
Amang the blooming heather:
Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain,
Delights the weary Farmer;
And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night,
To muse upon my Charmer.

The Partridge loves the fruitful fells,
The Plover loves the mountains;
The Woodcock haunts the lonely dells,
The soaring Hern the fountains:
Thro' lofty groves the Cushat roves,
The path of man to shun it;
The hazel bush o'erhangs the Thrush,
The spreading thorn the Linnet.

Thus ev'ry kind their pleasure find,
The savage and the tender;
Some social join, and leagues combine,
Some solitary wander:

Avaunt, away! the cruel sway!
Tyrannic man's dominion;
The Sportsman's joy, the murd'ring cry,
The flutt'ring, gory pinion!

But PEGGY dear, the ev'ning's clear,
Thick flies the skimming Swallow,
The sky is blue, the fields in view,
All fading-green and yellow:
Come let us stray our gladsome way,
And view the charms of Nature;
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn,
And ilka happy creature.

We'll gently walk, and sweetly talk,
Till the silent moon shine clearly;
I'll grasp thy waist, and fondly prest,
Swear how I love thee dearly:
Not vernal show'rs to budding flow'rs,
Not Autumn to the Farmer,
So dear can be, as thou to me,
My fair, my lovely Charmer!

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1y

#OTD in 1880 Radclyffe Hall was born. She was the author of the pioneering lesbian novel "The Well of Loneliness" and was also a poet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radclyffe_Hall

Books by Hall at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Radclyffe+Hall

#books #literature #lgbtq

Painting of Radclyffe Hall by Charles Buchel

Edited 1y ago

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1y

Now, on the moors where the guns bring down
The predestinated birds,
Shrill, wavering cries pass
Like the words of an international peace;
And I would that these cries were heard in every town,
Astounding the roar of the wheel
And the lying mouth of the news…

—William Soutar (1898–1943), “The Guns”

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury

The Guns
William Soutar

Now, on the moors where the guns bring down
The predestinated birds,
Shrill, wavering cries pass
Like the words of an international peace;
And I would that these cries were heard in every town,
Astounding the roar of the wheel
And the lying mouth of the news:
And I would that these cries might more and more increase
Until the machine stood still;
And men, despairing in the deathly queues,
Heard their own heart-beats
Shouting aloud, in the silence of the streets:
“Are we not also hand-fed in a wilderness:
What are we waiting for?”

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199d

“Novels like LANARK do what all the best art does: awaken your imaginative capacities without swallowing them whole. It does not give you answers, but it does give you the right questions.”

—Stephen Durkan: “LANARK: an escape to reality”

https://stephendurkan.wordpress.com/2021/02/25/lanark-an-escape-to-reality/

#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #GrayDay #Lanark #fantasy

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1y

That August night
the Perseid shower rained
on moor and lily-loch, on a frightened world –
on us, in a roofless shieling

with all our tat…

—Kathleen Jamie, “One of Us”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Picador, 2018)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/selected-poems/9781509882953

#Scottish #literature #folklore #poem #poetry #Perseids

One of Us
by Kathleen Jamie

We are come in a stone boat,
a miracle ship that steers itself
round skerries where guillemots
and shags stand still as graves.
Our sealskin cloaks are clasped
by a fist-sized penannular brooch,
our slippers are feathery
gugas’ necks: so delicate
we carried them over the wracky shore,
past several rusted tractors. Truth:
this was a poor place, a
ragged land all worn to holes. No one,
nothing, but a distant
Telecom van, a bungalow
tied with fishing floats
for want of flowers.
That August night
the Perseid shower rained
on moor and lily-loch, on a frightened world –
on us, in a roofless shieling

with all our tat: the
golden horn of righteousness,
the justice harp; what folks expect.
We took swans’ shape
to cross the Minch, one last fling
with silly magic – at our first
mainland steps a dormobile
slewed into a passing place; cameras flashed.
So we stayed high, surprised
a forester making aeolian flutes
from plastic tubes,
he shared his pay. ‘Avoid
the A9. For God’s sake,
get some proper clothes.” We ditched
the cloaks, bought yellow
Pringle sweaters in Spean Bridge,
and house by safe house
arrived in Edinburgh. So far so
tedious: we all hold
minor government jobs, lay plans, and bide our time.

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199d

INTERVIEWER: When somebody asks you to describe your book LANARK, what do you say to them?
ALASDAIR GRAY: I say it is a Scottish petit bourgeois model of the universe.
I: Just like that?
AG: Yes, I’ve rehearsed it & honed it down to as few words as possible.

It’s #GrayDay! Alasdair Gray’s LANARK was first published on 25 Feb 1981

@bookstodon
🧵
preface/

🎨 Screenprint of the title page to LANARK, by Gray & Murray Robertson

https://shop.glasgowprintstudio.co.uk/artists/38-alasdair-gray/works/23001-alasdair-gray-lanark-title-page-2014/

#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #Lanark

A coloured screenprint of a title page for LANARK: A Life in Four Books. The illustration contains dreamlike imagery against a background of stars and rushing clouds: at the very top, a black-and-white sketch of Glasgow tenements and streets; next to it, a strange figure, part woman, part tree, who is eating the apples that grow from her body; next to that, a hand reaches out of a stormy sea towards a golden sun. A monstrous, distorted mixture of a whale and an elephant, with human hands and breasts, is suckling two embracing figures: a blue man and a pink woman. Dominating the image is a blonde, blue-eyed woman, looking outwards. A thin, almost emaciated, monochrome male figure rises from the page of an open sketchbook. He holds a pencil and a set of dividers and is drawing a replica of his own face. On the sketchbook is written "For Andrew Gray and Morag McAlpine | Glasgow Print Studio | 2014"

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199d

#OTD in In 1830, Victor Hugo‘s play Hernani premieres in Paris, eliciting protests from the audience for its attack on Classicism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernani_(drama)

"Hernani" (in French) at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9976

#books #literature #drama

Caricature by J. J. Grandville of the audience fighting at the premiere of Hernani. The audience is yelling at the stage. In the foreground two men are attacking a third man.

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142d

For Shakespeare’s (probable) birthday: Edwin Morgan’s “Instructions to an Actor”, from Collected Poems (Carcanet 2012)

“This single poem gets, via the heart of all theatre, to the heart of the communal in all the arts, and to the heart of form, the heart of voice and silence and to the heart of a kind of life that will never actually stop.”
—Ali Smith, in From Saturn to Glasgow: fifty favourite poems by Edwin Morgan

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #theatre #Shakespeare #ShakespeareDay

Edwin Morgan
Instructions to an Actor

Now, boy, remember this is the great scene.
You’ll stand on a pedestal behind a curtain,
the curtain will be drawn, and then you don’t move
for eighty lines; don’t move, don’t speak, don’t breathe.
I’ll stun them all out there, I’ll scare them,
make them weep, but it depends on you.
I warn you eighty lines is a long time,
but you don’t breathe, you’re dead,
you’re a dead queen, a statue,
you’re dead as stone, new-carved,
new-painted and the paint not dry
– we’ll get some red to keep your lip shining –
and you’re a mature woman, you’ve got dignity,
some beauty still in middle age, and
you’re kind and true, but you’re dead,
your husband thinks you’re dead,
the audience thinks you’re dead,
and you don’t breathe, boy, I say
you don’t even blink for eighty lines,
if you blink you’re out!
Fix your eye on something and keep watching it.

Practise when you get home. It can be done.
And you move at last – music’s the cue.
When you hear a mysterious solemn jangle
of instruments, make yourself ready.
Five lines more, you can lift a hand.
It may tingle a bit, but lift it –
slow, slow –
O this is where I hit them
right between the eyes, I’ve got them now –
I’m making the dead walk –
you move a foot, slow, steady, down,
you guard your balance in case you’re stiff,
you move, you step down, down from the pedestal,
control your skirt with one hand, the other hand
you now hold out –
O this will melt their hearts if nothing does –
to your husband who wronged you long ago
and hesitates in amazement
to believe you are alive.
Finally he embraces you, and there’s nothing
I can give you to say, boy,
but you must show that you have forgiven him.
Forgiveness, that’s the thing. It’s like a second life.
I know you can do it. – Right then, shall we try?

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199d

Guide to the classics: 18th century novel Fantomina has a sexually curious, identity-switching heroine

Eliza Haywood was a bestselling 18th century author closely associated with the then-emerging genre of the novel. Little is known of her life beyond her writing.

by Nicola Parsons

https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-18th-century-novel-fantomina-has-a-sexually-curious-identity-switching-heroine-253949

Elisa Haywood at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3687

#books #literature

Title page for the first publication of Fantomina in 1725

Eliza Haywood - Haywood, Eliza Fowler. Secret histories, novels and poems. In four volumes. Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. Vol. 3.The second edition. London, 1725. Eighteenth Century Collections Online

A title page from an 18th-century printed book, with text in varying typefaces and sizes within a plain ruled border. It reads:
FANTOMINA: OR, Love in a Maze. BEING A Secret History OF AN AMOUR Between Two Persons of Condition. By Mrs. ELIZA HAYWOOD.
Below that, an italic epigraph attributed to Waller: "In Love the Victors from the Vanquish'd fly, They fly that wound, and they pursue that dye."
At the bottom, the publication details: LONDON: Printed for D. Browne jun. at the Black-Swan without Temple-Bar, and S. Chapman, at the Angel in Pallmall. M.DCC.XXV.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Fantomina.png

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199d

“LANARK, in common with all great books, is still, and always will be, an act of resistance. It is part of the system of whispers and sedition and direct communion, one voice to another, we call literature.”

—Janice Galloway, writing in 2002

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/oct/12/fiction.alasdairgray

#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #GrayDay #Lanark

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199d

“LANARK is a strange, experimental book that immediately thrusts the reader into a weird world with glimmers of familiarity”

—author Rodge Glass & the International Anthony Burgess Foundation discuss Alasdair Gray’s LANARK

https://www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/ninety-nine-novels-lanark-by-alasdair-gray/

#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #GrayDay #Lanark #AnthonyBurgess

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198d

Translating the Saga of the Earls of Orkney
Deep Dives into Orkneyinga saga: Notes from the Translators’ Workshop
5 March, University of Aberdeen – free, all welcome

Prof Judith Jesch is an expert on Norse Scotland & its literature, women in the Viking Age, & runology. Her new translation of Orkneyinga saga was published by Birlinn in 2025

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/dhpa/events/23477/

#Scottish #literature #saga #Orkney #medieval #Vikings #Norse #translation

Book cover

The Saga of the Earls of Orkney
Edited and translated by Judith Jesch

A deep red background, decorated with examples of Norse animal knotwork. Ranged below the title, along the base of the cover, are four of the walrus-ivory Lewis chessmen: from left to right, a standing warrior holding a sword; a seated king, a sword across his knees; a seated queen, one arm held up to her face; and a staring warrior holding a sword and a large kite shield in front of his body. This last chessman is chewing the top of his shield in a depiction of berserker battle-frenzy.

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198d

Agnes Owens in the archives
23 April, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Free, ticketed

2026 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Agnes Owens (1926–2014), described by Alasdair Gray in 2003 as "the most unfairly neglected of all living Scottish authors".

Explore how her archives are being used to reappraise her legacy & secure her status as a major Scottish literary figure.

https://www.nls.uk/whats-on/agnes-owens-in-the-archives/

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #AgnesOwens #workingclass #20thcentury #archives

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197d

Author event: Tom Newlands, Natalie Jayne Clark and Elspeth Wilson
28 Feb, Central Library, Stirling. Free, booking required

Three neurodivergent debut authors discuss their different journeys to publication and their writing processes.

https://www.stirling.gov.uk/community-life-and-leisure/libraries-and-archives/libraries/what-on-in-the-libraries/#tom-newlands-elspeth-wilson-natalie-jayne-cla-1

#Scottish #literature #writing #writingcommunity #neurodivergent #neurodivergence #Stirling

AUTHOR EVENT at Central Library
Saturday 28th February, 2–3pm, FREE

Tom Newlands: Award winning author of Only Here, Only Now, a powerful coming-of-age novel about friendship, identity, and modern Scottish life.

Natalie Jayne Clark: Bloody Scotland Debut
Award-nominated author of The Whisky Murders, a gripping Scottish crime novel set in the world of whisky and small-town secrets...

Elspeth Wilson: Author of These Mortal Bodies, a powerful novel exploring love, loss, and the past. Perfect for fans of the The Secret History.

Join us for an intimate, lively blether with three neurodivergent debut authors, each with different journeys to publication, writing processes, and obsessions to share with you.

To book a space: Ask in the library, phone 01786 237760 or email centrallibrary@stirling.gov.uk

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197d

Moonrise, an maudlin in the mirk,
we coorie in, hoose selt, hame hawked,
oor labour thirled tae yesterday,
the morra pawned fur brick-a-brack…

—Janet Paisley, “Aw Jock Tamson’s”
published in THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF SCOTTISH VERSE, @canongatebooks 2021

https://canongate.co.uk/books/3267-the-golden-treasury-of-scottish-verse/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #socialjustice #hope

Aw Jock Tamson’s
Janet Paisley

Moonrise, an maudlin in the mirk,
we coorie in, hoose selt, hame hawked,
oor labour thirled tae yesterday,
the morra pawned fur brick-a-brack.

Thieves tout the mercat, flashin cash
in credit caird tricks yince cried tick.
Gowks gawp. It’s easy money. Hauns
dip threidbare pooches skint by lees;

yin cat feeds fat, an hunners sterve.
Dunderheids, we bocht intae grief,
gied up sense fur greed, furgoat brass
barters work, its worth inventit.

A dreich rain faws oan rentit roofs.
We pey tae drain the run-aff, pey
again tae pipe it back. Nae debt
is gain. If lochs fill, mountains droon.

Yit bairns sleep an dream, fit tae bigg
a warld whaur love gies shelter, breid
daily, care redds up, prood tae bide
an fecht whaur fowk cry foul at cheats:

nae man worth mair. It’s wha we are.
Tak tent. Waukened, sleeves rowed up,
drookit, set tae work, a new stert.
Day breks, mornin sun ay rises.

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175d

When I am reading
the literature of my people
I think,
We have no Homer

no poet as great as that,
at all as great as that,
in that way
in that marvellous way…

—Iain Crichton Smith, “When I am Reading”
published in NEW COLLECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2011)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857549607/new-collected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WorldPoetryDay

Iain Crichton Smith
When I am Reading

When I am reading
the literature of my people
I think,
We have no Homer

no poet as great as that,
at all as great as that,
in that way
in that marvellous way.

But now and again I read
about a particular girl
who died of love
in a ragged dress

or an eagle will rise
crying, I was eating
noble dead soldiers
who were lying on a battlefield.

And now and again there will sail
on the sea towards Canada
ships with salt sails,
songs that are white with pain.

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196d

The scandal that engulfed the last Brontë sister's death

When Charlotte Brontë died—the last of her massively talented family to succumb to an early death—the press entered a feeding frenzy. A friend and equally famous writer aimed to set the record straight and nearly destroyed her career doing so.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/bronte-sisters-charlotte-bronte-elizabeth-gaskell

Books by Charlotte Bronte at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/408

Books by Elizabeth Gaskell at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/220

#books #literature

Drawing of Charlotte Bronte. She standing and holding her bonnet by the strings in her right hand.

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196d

Today, 28 February, is Scottish Archives Day. Here’s Edwin Morgan’s poem “Archives”, published in Centenary Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2020)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784109967

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #EdwinMorgan #archive #archives #ScottishArchivesDay

Archives
by Edwin Morgan

generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
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196d

Such days, when trees run downwind,
their arms stretched before them.

Such days, when the sun’s in a drawer
and the drawer locked…

—Norman MacCaig, “February – not everywhere”
from Poems on the Underground

https://poemsontheunderground.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/February-Poems-Leaflet.pdf

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #NormanMacCaig #February #motherhood

Norman MacCaig
February – not everywhere

Such days, when trees run downwind,
their arms stretched before them.

Such days, when the sun’s in a drawer
and the drawer locked.

When the meadow is dead, is a carpet,
thin and shabby, with no pattern

and at bus stops people retract into collars
their faces like fists.

– And when, in a firelit room, a mother looks
at her four seasons, at her little boy,

in the centre of everything, with still pools
of shadows and a fire throwing flowers.

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