Eggplant.place

259d

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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236d

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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258d

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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258d

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
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
generation upon
g neration up n
g nerat on up n
g nerat n up n
g nerat n p n
g erat n p n
g era n p n
g era n n
g er n n
g r n n
g n n
g n
g

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258d

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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236d

The thing about poetry is you have to keep doing it.
People have to keep making it.
The old stuff is no use
Once it’s old…

—Margaret, Tait, “Now”
from Poems, Stories and Writings (Carcanet, 2023)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800173798/poems-stories-and-writings/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WorldPoetryDay

Now
by Margaret Tait

I used to lie in wait to see the clover open
Or close,
But never saw it.
I was too impatient,
Or the movement is too subtle,
Imperceptible
And more than momentary.
My five-year-old self would tire of waiting
And when I looked again
– All closed for the night!
I missed it
Once more.

Cinematographically
I have registered the opening of escholtzia
On an early summer morning.
It gave me a sharp awareness of time passing,
Of exact qualities and values in the light,
But I didn’t see the movement
As movement.
I didn’t with my own direct perception see the petals
moving.
Later, on the film, they seemed to open swiftly,
But, at the time,
Although I stared
And felt time not so much moving as being moved in
And felt
A unity of time and place with other times and places
Yet
I didn’t see the petals moving.

ALT

I didn’t see them opening.
They were closed,
And later they were open,
And in between I noted many phases,
But I didn’t see them moving open.
My timing and my rhythm could not observe the
rhythm of their opening.

The thing about poetry is you have to keep doing it.
People have to keep making it.
The old stuff is no use
Once it’s old.
It comes out of the instant
And lasts for an instant.
Take it now
Quickly
Without water.

There!

Tomorrow they’ll be something else.

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236d

heh Casey did a tell ye a goat
a couple a poems published
widizthatmean
widayyemean
dizthatmeanyegetmoneyfurrit…

—William Letford, “It’s aboot the labour”
published in BEVEL (Carcanet, 2012)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781847771926

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WorldPoetryDay

It’s aboot the labour
by William Letford

hammers nails
hammers nails
hammers nails

heh Casey did a tell ye a goat
a couple a poems published
widizthatmean
widayyemean
dizthatmeanyegetmoneyfurrit

eh naw
aw right

hammers nails
hammers nails
hammers nails

ALT

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236d

I found him wandering on the hill
one hot blue afternoon.
He looked as skinny as a nail,
as pale-skinned as the moon…

—Don Paterson, “The Poetry”
published in RAIN (Faber, 2009)

https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571255580-rain/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WorldPoetryDay

Don Paterson
The Poetry

after Li Po

I found him wandering on the hill
one hot blue afternoon.
He looked as skinny as a nail,
as pale-skinned as the moon;

below the broad shade of his hat
his face was cut with rain.
Dear God, poor Du Fu, I thought:
It’s the poetry again.

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238d

#OTD "in 1812, the first two cantos of Lord Byron‘s poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage are published by John Murray in London. Copies sell out in five days, prompting Byron to comment: “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.”"

https://lithub.com/lit-hub-daily-march-20-2026/

"Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage" at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5131

#books #literature #poetry

Prisoner of Chillon - a painting of a man standing next to a cow. Painting by Madox Brown.

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178d

“The similarities between Spark & Schiaparelli are striking: both were witty, satirical. Both were artists depicting female desire & aspiration with a critical eye”

—via @literaryhub – Lilian Pizzichini looks for a dress from Muriel Spark’s THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS

https://lithub.com/sciaparelli-and-spark-on-the-fashion-of-the-girls-of-slender-means/

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #20thcentury #fashion #MurielSpark #Schiaparelli

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256d

Bookclub: Alan Cumming on Alasdair Gray’s LANARK

Currently available on BBC Sounds.
Recorded at the at the 2026 Pitlochry Winter Words Festival, this special episode of Bookclub celebrates Alasdair Gray’s 1981 masterpiece, LANARK, with the actor Alan Cumming, who is the voice of the new audiobook recently released by @canongatebooks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002s2yx

#Scottish #literature #Lanark #novel #AlasdairGray #AlanCumming

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204d

“William Shakespeare was a powerful influence on Robert Burns… I count as many as 16 references to Shakespeare’s plays in his poetry”

—Prof Gerard Carruthers on the links & commonalities between Robert Burns & William Shakespeare

https://theconversation.com/haggis-neeps-and-soliloquys-the-bonds-that-tie-robert-burns-and-shakespeare-53578/

#Scottish #literature #poetry #drama #RobertBurns #18thcentury #romanticism #Shakespeare #ShakespeareDay

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224d

A Latin harsh with Aramaicisms
poured from his lips incessantly; it made
no sense, for surely he was mad…

—Edwin Morgan, “Pilate at Fortingall”
published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #Easter #poem #poetry #GoodFriday

Pilate at Fortingall
by Edwin Morgan

A Latin harsh with Aramaicisms
poured from his lips incessantly; it made
no sense, for surely he was mad. The glade
of birches shamed his rags, in paroxysms
he stumbled, toga’d, furred, blear, brittle, grey.
They told us he sat here beneath the yew
even in downpours; ate dog-scraps. Crows flew
from prehistoric stone to stone all day.
“See him now.” He crawled to the cattle-trough
at dusk, jumbled the water till it sloshed
and spilled into the hoof-mush in blue strands,
slapped with useless despair each sodden cuff,
and washed his hands, and watched his hands, and washed
his hands, and watched his hands, and washed his hands.

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204d

When the sun was white and wintry and drained of energy
Macbeth met the witches under the rim of the sky…

—Iain Crichton Smith, “Macbeth and the Witches”
published in DEER ON THE HIGH HILLS (Carcanet, 2021)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800170940/deer-on-the-high-hills/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Shakespeare #ShakespeareDay #Macbeth

Macbeth and the Witches
by Iain Crichton Smith

When the sun was white and wintry and drained of energy
Macbeth met the witches under the rim of the sky.
Why did you confirm my evil, he said.

And the witches who were lighting thorns in the cold winter said,
There is a play that one plays when the summer is over
and you happened to be one of the cards in our hand,

a deformed king with a coat too large for him
and a crown that sizzled in the white wintry sky.
These things are after all not important

except to those who suffer, who are not important.
Feeling belongs to the spring and the ignorance of lovers.
Here in this wood it is a question of passing the time,

and the abstract intellect constructs dramas
with a queen and a pawn and the immortal joker
who faces two ways at the frosty January gates.

Let be, let be, it was quite a nice structure.
And truth after all can be played with under the sun
which is fading slowly towards a renaissance of leaves.

Come, join us, join us, at the unimportant edge of things
wearing your coat of blood with the hole in the breast.
This is the west. The east has innocent wings.

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241d

On the Genius of Frances Burney, Jane Austen’s Most Important Literary Predecessor

Natasha Joukovsky Considers Ahead-of-Their-Time Novels Cecilia and Evelina

https://lithub.com/on-the-genius-of-frances-burney-jane-austens-most-important-literary-predecessor/

Frances Burney at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2010

#books #literature #literarycriticism

Portrait of the future wife of General Alexandre d'Arblay (she did not marry this French émigré until 1793), Frances, also known as “Fanny” Burney (1752–1840), a British writer, painted by her brother.

A half-length portrait, with Frances turned slightly to the left, her gaze directed off-frame. She wears a llarge, elaborate straw hat decorated with ribbons and gauze, a light flowing white dress with a fichu (neck covering) and a pink bow at the chest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Burney#/media/File:Frances_d'Arblay_('Fanny_Burney')_by_Edward_Francisco_Burney.jpg

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178d

Return Of The Jack

The latest Scots Whay Hae! podcast catches up with writer Chris Brookmyre to talk about Quite Ugly One Evening, the latest Jack Parlabane mystery, which is published 30 years after his celebrated debut Quite Ugly One Morning

@bookstodon

https://www.scotswhayhae.com/post/return-of-the-jack-the-scots-whay-hae-podcast-talks-to-chris-brookmyre

#Scottish #literature #crimefiction #podcast

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229d

Life, letters & low tide in Shetland: Valda and MacDiarmid

“Valda is clearly the more practical of the two. It would become apparent that without her at the helm, they were doomed.”

Shetland offered Hugh MacDiarmid solitude, but it was his wife Valda Trevlyn Grieve who kept life steady. Dr Colin McIlroy of the National Library of Scotland examines the letters of Hugh MacDiarmid & Valda Trevlyn Grieve

https://www.nls.uk/collections/stories/literature-and-poetry/valda-grieve-and-hugh-macdiarmid/

#Scottish #literature #poetry #modernism #20thcentury #Shetland

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241d

Oops, Typo! A New Exhibition Embraces 500 Years of Printed Mistakes

The show at Yale Library explores the printing errors, blunders, and gaffes that made literary history.

by Min Chen

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/yale-errata-exhibition-2751007

#books #literature

A section of a page from the Wicked Bible of 1631.

The notorious typographical error is visible in the highlighted line 14: "Thou shalt commit adultery" — the word "not" was accidentally omitted from the Seventh Commandment, directly inverting its meaning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographical_error#/media/File:Marked_Wicked_bible.jpg

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241d

“The Delusions fizzes with impatience, invention and humour… The values of the afterlife seem delusory, a spectacle managed by shady overlords. As below, so above.”

—M. John Harrison reviews Jenni Fagan’s new novel THE DELUSIONS, set in a failing anteroom to eternity – “a cross between Heathrow security the day before Christmas and a job centre on a damp Monday somewhere in Wolverhampton”

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/17/the-delusions-by-jenni-fagan-review-an-afterlife-of-queues-and-bureaucracy

#Scottish #literature #novel #satire #fantasy #afterlife

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241d

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Ireland & Scotland: Cultural Intersections Across the Irish Sea

Issue 33 of Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature and Culture explores some of the literary traffic between 🇮🇪 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 in the 20th & 21st centuries

@litstudies

https://litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/magazin/2023-33-65/

#Scotland #Ireland #Scottish #Irish #literature #culture #culturalexchange #StPatricksDay

Ireland and Scotland: Cultural Intersections Across the Irish Sea

Introduction: Cultural Intersections Across the Irish Sea
Petra Johana Poncarová and Radvan Markus, p. 1-7

Principles and Curses: The Honourable Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar and Some Irish Connections
Gerard Cairns, p. 8-24

Derick Thomson and Ireland
Petra Johana Poncarová, p. 25-44

A Mirror to Ireland: Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s Articles about Scotland
Radvan Markus, p. 44-61

Dáimh le hAlbain?: Depictions of Scotland in Twentieth-Century Irish-Language Prose
Caoimhe Nic Lochlainn, p. 62-84

Modernising the Islands: Irish and Scottish Gaelic Fictions
Alan Titley, p. 85-100

On Irish Poets Writing in Scotland
Peter Mackay, p. 101-123

“What Horrors Worse Than These?”: Childhood and Adolescence in Catholic Glasgow
Christopher Whyte, p. 124-139

Notes on Contributors
p. 140-142

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241d

The Book of Kells: Was it made in Easter Ross?
25 March, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye & online: free

The Book of Kells is often called the world’s most famous manuscript, but its origins are shrouded in mystery. Dr Victoria Whitworth challenges the consensus that the Book was made in the island of Iona, making a case instead for the Pictish monastery of Portmahomack.

https://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/seiminear-rannsachaidh-dr-victoria-whitworth/?lang=en

#Scottish #Irish #literature #earlymedieval #arthistory #bookhistory #BookofKells #CelticStudies

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226d

Short Works: My Favourite Holobiont by Ever Dundas

Currently on BBC Sounds: in Ever Dundas’s new original story, Joe’s aunt gives a meaningful insight into their experiences with autism in a world built for neurotypicals

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t2l2

#Scottish #literature #shortstory #shortfiction #autism #neurodivergent

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241d

“Joyce considered how the ‘sister’ nations Ireland & Scotland might be linked through similar philosophical traditions, MacDiarmid saw modern Irish cultural & political developments as a source of inspiration for Scotland, & Heaney turned to the Buile Suibhne story as a way of stressing cultural commonalities”

Late Celticism in Irish & Scottish literature: binding ties

@litstudies

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2023/06/14/late-celticism-in-irish-and-scottish-literature-binding-ties/

#Scotland #Ireland #Scottish #Irish #literature #culture #CelticStudies #20thcentury

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238d

A’ bheinn luiseanach fhailleanach
Mheallanach lìontach,
Gun choimeas dh’ a fallaing
Air thalamh na Crìosdachd…

—“Moladh Beinn Dòbhrain”, by Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir (Duncan Ban MacIntyre, 1724–1812), one of the greatest #Gaelic poets of the #C18th – born #OTD, 20 March

A 🎂 🧵

1/5

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #18thcentury

Moladh Beinn Dòbhrain (earrann)
Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir

4. Siubhal
A’ bheinn luiseanach fhailleanach
Mheallanach lìontach,
Gun choimeas dh’ a fallaing
Air thalamh na Crìosdachd:

’S ro-neònach tha mise,
Le bòidhchead a sliosa,
Nach ’eil còir aic’ an ciste
Air tiotal na rìoghachd;

’S i air dùbladh le gibhtibh,
’S air lùisreadh le miosaibh
Nach ’eil bitheant a’ bristeadh
Air phriseanaibh tìre.

Làn-trusgan gun deireas,
Le usgraichean coille,
Bàrr-guc air gach doire,
Gun choir’ ort r’ a ìnnseadh;

Far an uchdardach coileach,
Le shriutaichibh loinneil,
’S eoin bhuchallach bheag’ eile
Le ’n ceileiribh lìonmhor.

’S am buicean beag sgiolta,
Bu sgiobalt air grìne,
Gun sgiorradh gun tubaist,
Gun tuisleadh gun dìobradh;

Crodhanadh biorach,
Feadh coire ’ga shireadh,
Feadh fraoich agus firich,
Air mhireadh ’ga dhìreadh;
Feadh rainich is barraich
Gum b’arraideach inntinn;

Ann an ìosal gach feadain,
’S air àirde gach creagain,
Gu mireanach beiceasach
Easgannach sìnteach.

Edited 238d ago

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204d

There was this king sitted in his garden all alane
When his brother in his ear poured a little bit o’ henbane,
Stole his brother’s crown and his money and his widow;
But the dead king walked and got his son and said, “Hey listen, kiddo…”

—Adam McNaughtan sings “Oor Hamlet: : a tragedy in 3 minutes”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPclD-m64Tg

#Scottish #literature #song #humour #Shakespeare #ShakespeareDay #Hamlet

Edited 204d ago

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