Between Mountain and Sea
Poems From Assynt
Published on 5. July 2018
192 pages
978-1-78885-029-2 (ISBN)
Description
'Two Men at Once' is one of Norman MacCaig best known poems. He was indeed two men at once: Edinburgh, the city where he was born and lived as a teacher and poet, was his home, but no other place shaped his poetry more than Assynt in Sutherland. It is here that he would spend many a summer on family holidays, walking the hills and fishing the lochs. MacCaig's fresh eye saw remarkable newness even in the everyday and each poem is a tiny revelation, a new look at an old friend. This collection celebrates, renews, and rediscovers Norman MacCaig's Assynt.
Reviews / Votes
'[Reveals] the poet's relationship with Assynt, a relationship that lasted forty years and informed his imagination as no other place did. An excellent introduction to the formal trajectory of MacCaig's work' * Times Literary Supplement * 'I have always loved the mixture of strictness and susceptibility in Norman MacCaig's work. It is an on-going education in the marvellous possibilities of lyric poetry' -- Seamus Heaney 'I have read or re-read every poem [in the Collected Poems], and I think it one of the greatest literary experiences of my life' -- Sorley MacLean 'Whenever I meet his poems, I'm always struck by their undated freshness; everything about them is alive, as new and essential, as ever' -- Ted HughesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Birlinn General
File size
1,18 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-78885-029-2 (9781788850292)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
07/2018
Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
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Persons
Norman MacCaig was born in Edinburgh in 1910. His formal education was firmly rooted in the Edinburgh soil: he attended the Royal High School, Edinburgh University and then trained to be a teacher at Moray House. Having spent years educating young children he later taught Creative Writing, first at Edinburgh University, then at the University of Stirling. He died in 1996.
Roderick Watson was born in Aberdeen and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, Aberdeen University and Peterhouse, Cambridge. A recently retired professor at Stirling University, he has lectured and published widely on modern Scottish literature and currently co-edits the Journal of Stevenson Studies. His main poetry collections are True History on the Walls (1977) and Into the Blue Wavelengths (2004).
Roderick Watson was born in Aberdeen and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, Aberdeen University and Peterhouse, Cambridge. A recently retired professor at Stirling University, he has lectured and published widely on modern Scottish literature and currently co-edits the Journal of Stevenson Studies. His main poetry collections are True History on the Walls (1977) and Into the Blue Wavelengths (2004).
Content
- Intro
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Foreword Ewen McCaig
- Introduction Roderick Watson
- 'Long journey back'
- Back to Sutherland after a long absence
- Inverkirkaig Bay
- Climbing Suilven
- Swimming lizard
- Maiden Loch
- Haycock, Achiltibuie
- Goat
- 'Enviable landscapes'
- Memory two ways
- Sound of the sea on a still evening
- Spraying sheep
- Culag Pier
- Midnight, Lochinver
- High up on Suilven
- Moorings
- Poachers, early morning
- Byre
- Water tap
- Loch Sionascaig
- July evening
- A voice of summer
- No accident
- Signs and signals
- Fire water
- Sandstone mountain
- Bull
- Sheep dipping, Achmelvich
- By Achmelvich bridge
- A corner of the road, early morning
- Remembering old Murdo scything
- Struck by lightning
- Winter
- Among scholars
- Fetching cows
- Falls pool, evening
- Vestey's well
- Two shepherds
- Waiting to notice
- In this wild day
- Above Inverkirkaig
- On a cloudy mountain
- Looking down on Glen Canisp
- Illumination: on the track by Loch Fewin
- Humanism
- Between
- Moment musical in Assynt
- Small round loch
- Old rose bush
- Basking shark
- Dancing minister
- Country dance
- Lord of Creation
- Walking to Inveruplan
- Descent from the Green Corrie
- So many summers
- 'The misty landscape of history'
- A man in Assynt
- No end no beginning
- Centre of centres
- 'Back again'
- Back again, Lairg station
- July landing
- Lesson
- Greenshank
- Birthdays
- The Pass of the Roaring
- In everything
- Reversal
- Stag in a neglected hayfield
- A. K. 's summer hut
- Small rain
- Praise of a road
- Praise of a collie
- Praise of a boat
- Praise of a thorn bush
- Small lochs
- Stonechat on Cul Beg
- Summer evening in Assynt
- 1,800 feet up
- Poems for Angus (1976-78)
- Notes on a winter journey, and a footnote
- 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
- Tighnuilt - the House of the Small Stream
- Off Coigeach Point
- Me as traveller
- 'Notations'
- Notations of ten summer minutes
- Highland games
- View with no prospect
- Toad
- Local dance
- Gamekeeper's widow
- Invasion of bees
- Two thieves
- Camera man
- One more
- Summer idyll
- Running bull
- On the Lairg to Lochinver bus
- Pastoral
- Found guilty
- Highland barbecue
- On the north side of Suilven
- At the Loch of the Pass of the Swans
- Everywhere at Loch Roe
- A man walking through Clachtoll
- On the pier at Kinlochbervie
- Haymaking
- 'Honey and salt'
- Between mountain and sea
- On a croft by the Kirkaig
- Crofter
- On Lachie's croft
- Perfect evening, Loch Roe
- Wester Ross, West Sutherland
- Sargasso Sea
- Maps
- The Loch of the Peevish Creek
- Idling at sea
- At the foot of Cul Mor
- Two men at once
- Country lover
- Sunset at Clashnessie
- Things behind each other
- In the croft house called The Glen
- Image of a man
- Assynt and Edinburgh
- Gale at Stoer Point
- A small corner with a space in it
- On Handa
- Processes
- By the Three Lochans
- Index of titles
