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A Kist o Skinklan Things

PART OF THE The Second Spring ISSUE

‘Nae man wha loves the lawland tongue / But warsles wi’ the thocht’

The twentieth-century Scottish Renaissance saw a sudden and dramatic change in Scotland’s literary landscape. Beginning in the 1920s, Scottish writers increasingly engaged with contemporary social and political issues, and with questions of national identity. An integral part of this development was the radically new literary status accorded to the Scots language. This poem by William Soutar is emblematic of the themes that this dynamic collection highlights.

Extract from A Kist o Skinklan Things
Edited by J Derrick McClure
Published by ASLS

The Makar
By William Soutar

Nae man wha loves the lawland tongue
But warsles wi’ the thocht—
There are mair sangs that bide unsung
Nor a’ that hae been wrocht.

Ablow the wastrey o’ the years,
The thorter o’ himsel’,
Deep buried in his bluid he hears
A music that is leal.

And wi’ this lealness gangs his ain;
And there’s nae ither gait
Though a’ his feres were fremmit men
Wha cry: Owre late, owre late.

A Kist o Skinklan Things, edited by J Derrick McClure, is out now published by ASLS priced £14.95.

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