The Poems of Norman MacCaig by MacCaig, Norman -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Table of Contents Editorial Note Acknowledgements Norman MacCaig: an Introduction Quotations from MacCaig1 1947

The last week of the year So many make one Public bar Instrument and agent

1948

Ophelia Not yet afterwards False summer I remember you Early summer Sun blink Private diary No time, no time Falls of Measach Environment The year, only, goes by In December

1949

Charlatan summer End of a cold night Morning Encounter Wild and drunken night Misty morning and no time Cold wind in May Lies for comfort After Separate Same day Always tonight November night, Edinburgh Be easy Something still

1950

Drifter Night no more real Country house Back to Sutherland after a long absence Out from a lecture Edinburgh spring Empty pool High Street, Edinburgh You went away 21 October Double life Wreck

1951

Old life for new The rosyfingered No escape Hero Frost and thin fog

1952

Wet snow Swimming lizard Socrates Hugh MacDiarmid’s lyrics

1953

Summer farm Sheep-dipping Birds all singing Shadow in summer Boats Still two Brother Botanic gardens

1954

Accuser Party By comparison Information Dream world Quoting day Laggandoan, Harris Maiden Loch Climbing Suilven Contraries Fiat Harpsichord playing Bach Dying landscape Too bright a day Sad cunning Poem for a goodbye Spate in winter midnight Golden calf Fetish Ego Non pareil Pioneer Growing down

1955

Celtic twilight Sacred river Ballade of good whisky Gifts In no time at all Roses and thorns Particular you Stone pillow Clachtoll

1956

Spectroscope Another flood Insurrection of memory Moor burns Inverkirkaig Bay Feeding ducks Fishing the Balvaig A man and a boat Regatta, Plockton Goat Nude in a fountain Country bedroom Haycock, Achiltibuie

1957

Turned head Creator Too cold for words Jug Any Orpheus Treeless landscape Dude

1958

Explicit snow By the canal, early March Edinburgh courtyard in July Half-built boat in a hayfield Ardmore Advices of time Castles in Spain Spring in a clear October Standing in my ideas Two ways of it Celtic cross World’s centre

From A Round Of Applause (mostly 1959–61)

Memory two ways Sound of the sea on a still evening Rain on fence wire Translations of innocence Failed mystic Crocus Spraying sheep Lighthouse Culag Pier Always first morning Other self All being equal Ordinary homecoming In a level light Midnight, Lochinver Things in each other The shore road High up on Suilven Preacher Moorings Christmas snow in Princes Street Poachers, early morning Byre Still life Water tap Mutual life Loch Sionascaig Outsider Dunvegan Loch na Bearraig John Quixote Work in progress Romantic sunset Explorer July evening A good day Old man by himself Purification Thaw on a building site Dinghy skirting a reef Ambiguous snow Canal in winter

1959

Crofter’s kitchen, evening Moon Green water Perfect morning

1960

Early Sunday morning, Edinburgh Black cat in a morning Granton

1961

Man at sea Hare

1962

Harris, East side A voice of summer No accident Bull Appearances Signs and signals Construction site Fire water Sandstone mountain True ways of knowing Same new start Street preacher Hugh MacDiarmid Solitary crow Sleet Sheep dipping, Achmelvich Old crofter Likenesses By Achmelvich bridge A corner of the road, early morning Skittles Neglected graveyard, Luskentyre Remembering old Murdo scything Not only there Icy road Traffic stop

1963

Tired sympathy Heron Summer waterfall, Glendale Aspects Sleepy passenger on a wild road Struck by lightning By an overflowing stream Firewood Saturday morning Winter Drenched field and bright sun Wind in the city Among scholars Miracles in working clothes Coral island Fetching cows Falls pool, evening Movements Vestey’s well Straggling geranium

1964

Threshing Another pause Inarticulate A noise of stumbles A writer Stages Hill streams of Abruzzi Summer drowse Three invisibles Nothing so memorable Two shepherds Loch Roe Assisi Responsibility An ordinary day Porpoises Smuggler Flooded mind Cold song Leader of men No nominalist Absorbed Progress Waiting to notice Go-between In this wild day Interruption to a journey Walking home exhausted The streets of Florence Above Inverkirkaig On a cloudy mountain Escapist Linguist No consolation Blind horse Near midnight Frogs Looking down on Glen Canisp

1965

Old poet Sounds of the day Trio Four o’clock blackbird Obituary Illumination: on the track by Loch Fewin Humanism No choice

1966

A difference Between Foiled shepherd Brooklyn cop Circle Line Tugboat poet Writers’ conference, Long Island University Hotel room, 12th floor Leaving the Museum of Modern Art Last night in New York New England Theocritus Estuary Sleeping compartment Painting – ‘The Blue Jar’ Power dive Diplomat Antique shop window

1967

Space travel Now and for ever Starlings Learning Orgy Moment musical in Assynt Rhu Mor Windy day in March Milne’s Bar Crossing the Border Aunt Julia Uncle Roderick Country postman The Red Well, Harris Uncle Seumas Fog at dusk Balances Truth for comfort Small round loch Names and their things Intrusion Old man thinking Song without music Old rose bush Mirror Names Numismatist Brechtian blues Visitor Basking shark Walking to Inveruplan So many summers Whales

From A Man in my Position (mostly 1967–68)

Old myth, new model The root of it No wizard, no witch Reclining Figure by Henry Moore: Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh Descent from the Green Corrie Dancing minister An academic A man in Assynt

1968

Drop scene One of the many days Millstones World within world Boundaries Structures No end, no beginning To a poet, grown old In my mind Give or take Wild oats Mrs Grant Green stain Night fishing on the Willow Pool Things in their elements Venus fly-trap Cliff top, east coast A man in my position Gulls on a hill loch The unlikely Message taken It’s hopeless Tree hung with fairy lights Concerto Old Edinburgh Spilled salt Preening swan Spring tide Sure proof Limits Lord of Creation Sparrow Two focuses I and my thoughts of you July day spectacular God in the grass One Easter Time

1969

Country dance Television studio Below the Green Corrie Portrait Bookworm Last word Incident The big tease In a mist Confused heretic

1970

Sunset ploughing Among the talk and the laughter Words in nowhere Mirror talk Flirt Bluestocking Aesthetics Excuse Midnights Battlefield near Inverness Old maps and new

1971

Another incident Centre of centres Memorial Between two nowheres After his death Old man Marriage bed New tables Caterpillar Dumb blonde Grand-daughter visiting Hogmanay Private Prism

1972

July landing Down and down The white bird Drop-out in Edinburgh Drifting in a dinghy The Little Falls Pool Prospector Horoscope Woodsman Landscape and I Blackbird in a sunset bush Back again, Lairg station Morning song Lesson Elemental you Return to Scalpay Greenshank Ringed plover by a water’s edge Birthdays If In a whirl

From The World’s Room (mostly 1972–73)

The Pass of the Roaring Pantheon His son to Lacoön Far gone in innocence Two into one Saying Yes is not enough

1973

Understanding Wooden chair with arms Still going Cheese and wine party Gone are the days Two-year-old In everything Spendthrift The unlikely as usual Caterpillar going somewhere Reversal Stag in a neglected hayfield Failed occasion One way journey A.K.’s summer hut Discouraging Small rain

1974

Bargain with a wren Praise of a road Praise of a collie Praise of a boat Praise of a thorn bush Grandchild How I wonder what you are To be a leaf Stars and planets University staff club A sigh for simplicity See what you’ve done Presents Small lochs

1975

Fishermen’s pub Three figures of Beethoven Bus stop Stonechat on Cul Beg Beside a water Means test Composers of music Summer evening in Assynt Lucifer falling Nothing too much Venus Goddess of lust Report Midnight encounter 1,800 feet up Kingfisher Close-ups of summer Unposted birthday card Ancestry

1976

Down-to-earth heaven Water Waxwing Intrusion of the human

From Poems for Angus+ (1976–78)

Poems for Angus* A. K. MacLeod Highland funeral A month after his death Triple burden Comforter Praise of a man From his house door Angus’s dog Dead friend In memoriam Defeat In all that whiteness Miss Botticelli 1976 Fulfilled ambition The shifts of spring Notations of ten summer minutes Heroes Survivors Scale No interims in history Folio Intruder in a set scene Back from holiday Consequences Being offered a Time Machine

1977

Connoisseur Adrift Tighnuilt – the House of the Small Stream Request Rowan berry Highland games Cormorants nesting Cock before dawn Thinned turnips Off Coigeach Point Ineducable me Report to the clan Me as traveller Classical translation A day and us Cupid Ends and means Fisherman Real life Christmas card

1978

Little Boy Blue Sea change Equilibrist Two friends The Kirk Puffin Earwig Thorns Journeys Toad Impatience Bird of which feather? Memorials Winter garden

1979

The way it goes Genealogy Rag and bone Blue tit on a string of peanuts A man I know Writing a letter Spring day Autobiographical note Jumping toad A true pleasure Penelope Balances (1979) Enough Hard division To create what?

1980

Helpless collector Recipe Circe Also Rewards and furies Godot Family of long-tailed tits Zeno, and his like Down and out Queen of Scots Go away, Ariel Sad tale Daedalus 19th floor nightmare, New York Bruce and that spider – the truth Creations Biblical discoveries View with no prospect How to cover the ground The first of them The dolphin to Arion City fog In that other world Local dance Clio Neanderthal man To explain you Gamekeeper’s widow Old man in his chair Two skulls Bullfinch on guard in a hawthorn tree Starling on a green lawn Walking alone Encounter with a weasel John Brown and Queen Victoria Invasion of bees Old couple in a bar Yes Below the Clisham, Isle of Harris: after many years Hermes-Mercury Two thieves

1981

Two thoughts of MacDiarmid in a quiet place Pibroch: The Harp Tree Courage Between us Cheerful pagan Bell heather Meeting a goddess, maybe Pine trees Gin trap Camera man In folds of fire A sort of physics Trapped Portrait bust Escapism One more From where I sit Theologian In Hades Gentle trap Landscape outside and in Summer idyll A man I agreed with Woodcocks and philosophers On a beach Running bull Characteristics My last word on frogs From my window Dreams Legends A matter of scale Foggy night Ugly waking The sea of sleep Portobello waterfront Every day On the Lairg to Lochinver bus Pastoral Found guilty Six schoolgirls

1982

Gentle saboteur A new age Philosophy Where we are Beach scene Man in the crowd Seen in the city No end to them Of you Autumn Neighbour

1983

Compare and contrast Double journey Gray wagtail By the graveyard, Luskentyre

1984

Her illness May morning Big Top Backward look Highland barbecue On the north side of Suilven Old Highland woman The dear green place At the Loch of the Pass of the Swans Inside and out Sealubber Everywhere at Loch Roe Bright day, dark centre Over and over again A man walking through Clachtoll Plea not to be deserted Memory On the pier at Kinlochbervie Country cameo Low tide Daybreak Likenesses in a morning Shetland reel Haymaking Between mountain and sea

1985

Someone’s birthday On a croft by the Kirkaig Crofter Two nights Sounds and silences Small boy New flood A man and his dreams Getting where? Crew Foreboding in Eden Buzzard circling Heavenly party A happiness Apparition Thinking of contradictions In a snug room

1986

February – not everywhere Other self, same self Man, rabbit and owl On Lachie’s croft End of her illness Seasonal notes – June Old shoes Little girl Perfect evening, Loch Roe Wild snowstorm Mountain streamlet Sleepy time April day in November, Edinburgh Slow evening Like you, like everyone A room and a woman in it That journey Emblems: after her illness Still is the night

1987

Chauvinist Divider Curlew Wester Ross, West Sutherland Deception Miracles? – no Fore and aft Two sides of a bright day Poems for her Crystal of women The many gifts Poor world Uprising

1988

Her name as everything One day as any day Sargasso Sea Workaholic Reading The Iliad Hope Maps Thinker

1989

Memory, mother of the Muses In an Edinburgh pub Duncan, bedridden London to Edinburgh Depths and heights High mountain loch Words, words – and time The red and the black The Loch of the Peevish Creek Nowheres Enemy of time Spring morning Idling at sea Against wind and tide Edinburgh stroll Highland ceilidh At the foot of Cul Mor Two men at once Dipper Kites Country lover Gaps in time Sunset at Clashnessie Nausicaa Impasse

1990

Myself after her death Myself after her death Myself after her death

1991

Five minutes at the window Things behind each other A sort of thanks A difference (1991) Contemporaries In the croft house called The Glen Languages Image of a man Assynt and Edinburgh Different musics

1992

By the Three Lochans Processes

Dates not known

Deceptions? Small journey Visiting hour Patriot Old Sarah It’s come to this The tribes of men Gale at Stoer Point Spinning minnow It sometimes happens After four sterile months Our neighbour’s cat Circles of dreams A small corner with a space in it On Handa Married couple Stifling day Potter’s field Discolourations Decaying birch wood August 1922 Nighthawk

Index of titles About the Author Copyright

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