Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
mastodon.scot is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A server intended for (but not limited to) users in Scotland or who identify as Scottish.

Administered by:

Server stats:

2.4K
active users

mastodon.scot: AboutStatusProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.6

Brian Lavelle has moved

I finally found an inexpensive copy of George Mackay Brown’s early (1965) volume of poems, The Year of the Whale. The cover design conjures another era altogether, one when—it seems—the publishing of “living” poets was something to be remarked upon.

The Year of the Whale contains one of my favourite of Brown’s poems, The Poet, the text of which is in the 2nd image. I've always thought those last four lines truly haunting.

The front cover of George Mackay Brown’s 1965 volume of poetry, The Year of the Whale. Above the title is the description of the series: The Phoenix Living Poets.The cover is printed in green ink with a repeated design of stylised phoenixes rising from the flames.
A page from George Mackay Brown’s 1965 volume of poetry, The Year of the Whale. It contains the poem, The Poet: "Therefore he no more troubled the pool of silence But put on mask and cloak, Strung a guitar And moved among the folk. Dancing they cried, ‘Ah, how our sober islands Are gay again, since this blind lyrical tramp Invaded the Fair!' Under the last dead lamp When all the dancers and masks had gone inside His cold stare Returned to its true task, interrogation of silence."
#GeorgeMackayBrown#Poetry#ScottishPoetry
Nov 19, 2022, 01:40 PM·Public·Web
7boosts·14favorites
Public
Uniformbooks

@brianlavelle

Very nice looking book Brian... interesting to compare it with Ian Hamilton Finlay's poem The Dancers Inherit the Party, from a few years earlier.

ExploreLive feeds
About