Poetry

This page lists highlights of Edinburgh University Library's collection of poetry manuscripts by Hugh MacDiarmid.

There are working materials for collections of poetry, manuscripts and typescripts of individual poems, and examples of MacDiarmid's work as a translator of verse.

1. Collections

The MacDiarmid Papers contain working materials for the following poetry collections:

  • The Kind of Poetry I Want (1961), 49 ff., MS (Gen 895/1) and 18 ff., MS and TS (Gen 895/2)
  • Poems to Paintings by William Johnstone (1963), 7 ff., MS (Gen 915), and 9 ff., TS (Gen 916)
  • Second Hymn to Lenin and Other Poems (1937), 33 ff., TS (MS 2975)

2. Individual Poems

There are also MS or TS texts of the following poems:

  • ‘The Antlered Stag (For Valda)’, 1 f., pencil (Gen 887/82) (enclosed in letter to F. G. Scott)
  • ‘Auld Reekie’, 5 ff., pen (Gen 767/1(b)/i)
  • ‘Auld Reekie’, 5 ff., pencil (Gen 887/12-16) (enclosed in letter to F. G. Scott)
  • ‘Ballad of Aun, King of Sweden’, 2 ff., pen (Gen 887/72-73) (enclosed in letter to F. G. Scott)
  • ‘The Belly-Grip’, 3 ff., pen (Gen 767/1(b)/ii)
  • ‘Bonus’, 1 f., TS (MS 3002)
  • ‘The Borders’, 5 ff., pen (Gen 767/21)
  • ‘Bourgeois Poetry’, 1 f., TS (MS 3002)
  • ‘Bracken Hills in Autumn’, 3 ff., pencil (Gen 887/74-76) (enclosed in letter to F. G. Scott)
  • ‘By Wauchopeside’, 1 f., TS with MS amendments (Gen 767/28/1/10-11)
  • ‘The Curly Snake: To M. P.’, 1 f., pen (Gen 2236/2/9)
  • ‘Cut-Throat Competition’, 1 f., TS (MS 3002)
  • ‘The Difference’, 1 f., pen (Gen 1957/5/1-2) and 1 f., TS (Gen 1957/3)
  • ‘Earth is Enough’, 1 f., pen (Gen 1957/5/1-2) and 1 f., TS (Gen 1957/3)
  • ‘The Fall of France, 25 June 1940’, 1 f., pen (Gen 887/71) (enclosed in letter to F. G. Scott)
  • ‘For the Hundred and Fiftieth Birthday of the Royal Scottish Academy’, 2 ff., TS (MS 2965.8/25-26)
  • ‘The Greatest of These’, 1 f., pencil (Gen 767/22)
  • ‘The Highlanders Are Not a Sensitive People’, 2 ff., pen (Gen 895/3)
  • ‘In the Slums of Glasgow’, 1 f., TS (MS 3002)
  • ‘Is It Nothing to You?’, 2 ff., TS (Gen 1957/6)
  • ‘The Kind of Poetry I Want’, 49 ff., pen (Gen 895/1)
  • ‘The Kind of Poetry I Want’, extracts, 18 ff., pen, pencil, and TS (Gen 895/2)
  • ‘The Miracle of Edinburgh’, 1 f., pen (Gen 1957/5/4)
  • ‘Most of my Contemporaries’, 1 f., pen (Gen 1957/5/1-2) and 1 f., TS (Gen 1957/3)
  • ‘The Nature of a Bird’s World’, 11 ff., pen (Gen 8953)
  • ‘Oh Ancient Wars in Poppies Blow’, 1 f., TS (Gen 2236/7)
  • 'On a Raised Beach’, 6 ff., pencil (Gen 887/83-88) (enclosed in letter to F. G. Scott)
  • ‘A Salonikan Storm Song’, 2 ff., pen (Gen 2236/7)
  • ‘Scots Dyke’, 1 f., pen (Gen 1957/5/1-2) and 1 f., TS (Gen 1957/3)
  • ‘Sea-Green Eyes of Orkney’, 1 f., pen (Gen 1957/5/5)
  • ‘S.O.S. (Save our Skins)’, 2 ff., pen (Gen 2236/2/10)
  • ‘The Stone of the Dog, in Glen Lyon’, 1 f., pen (Gen 908/3/1)
  • ‘The Terns’, 1 f., pen (Gen 908/3/2)
  • ‘Two Memories’, 2 ff., pen (Gen 767/23)
  • ‘Virgilium vidi tantum: On Shakespeare’s Quatercentenary’, pen, pencil, and TS, 6 ff. (Gen 897)
  • ‘Water Music’, 8 ff., pen (Gen 767/1(e))
  • ‘The Wild Swan’, 1 f., pen (Gen 908/3/3)

3. Poetry Translations

  • ‘Aniara’ (from the Swedish of Harry Martinson), 106 ff., pen (Gen 894)
  • ‘Weep and Wail No More (from the Italian of Giuseppe Ungaretti)’, 1 f., pen (Gen 1957/5/1-2) and 1 f., TS (Gen 1957/3)

Further Details

Please note that these pages are still in development and that fuller information will appear in due course. For further details of MacDiarmid manuscripts, see the online Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue and the manual Index to Manuscripts held in the Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library.

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