Manuscript drafts of 37 poems of Christopher Murray Grieve, alias Hugh MacDiarmid, and of parts of a larger work probably related to 'Impavidi Progrediamur'.
Scope and Contents
Some of the poems are apparently unpublished, but, where possible, references have been given to page numbers of the Complete Poems edited by Michael Grieve and W R Aitken, (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1994). [CP].
Manuscripts of individual poems:
‘Poems to Paintings by William Johnstone’, undated [CP 874, 1069]
(A Point in Time; Wedding of the Winds; Composition (1934); Knight; of William Johnstone’s Art; Ode to the North Wind).
‘To my friend the late Beatrice Hastings’, undated [CP 1393]
‘Esplumeoir’, undated [CP 1061]
‘Burnet Rose’, undated [CP 1401]
‘Westminster Abbey’, undated
‘Twentieth Century Nativity’, undated [CP 1368]
Untitled poem, undated, published as ‘Cranks never made good democrats’. [CP 1431]
‘Napalm Sunday. (A Calendar for Cannibals)’, undated [CP 1365]
‘The Unicorn’, undated [CP 1364]
‘Five Poems by Hugh MacDiarmid’, undated
(A Virgin Field; The Next Best Thing [CP 483]; English Poetry and Scottish Poetry; Goal and Crown).
‘Burns’ Salute to King Homer I’, undated [CP 1404]
‘A Change of Weather (Scotland, December 1965)’, undated [CP 1159]
Untitled poem, undated, published as ‘The Girl on the Vertical Capstan Lathe’. [CP 1397]
‘The Aerial City’, undated [CP 1053]
‘The Paradox, a Song’, undated
‘Contrite’ and ‘Weep and Wail No More’, undated [CP 1433]
Untitled poem, undated, beginning ‘To drink is a Christian diversion/’.
‘Like Millefiori in Clear Glass’, undated [CP 1383]
‘The Path of the Old Spells’, undated [CP 1327]
Untitled poem, undated, beginning ‘Since freedom is uncreated and has its roots in non-being/’.
‘Stones of Scotland.’, undated
(The Stone of the Dog, in Glen Lyon [CP 1465]; Solitary Confinement for Life).
Untitled poem, undated, published as ‘The All Scotland Salvation Stampede’. [CP 1385]
Two manuscripts, undated, of an untitled poem beginning ‘The idea of a female sex/’. (Two manuscripts).
Two manuscripts, undated, of ‘Lark’s Luck’.
Untitled poem, undated, beginning ‘So Patricia, the Ayrshire Champion, went wild/’.
Untitled poem, undated, published as ‘Earth is enough’. [CP 1434]
‘Haldane [and] Sunier’, undated, on verso of Arts Peace Campaign form.
Fragments, probably related to ‘Impavidi Progrediamur'
Part of a manuscript, undated, of an untitled poem, beginning ‘He did not break down/’, a version of which was published as ‘Direadh’ [CP 1163], and which includes ‘The Kind of Scot I Want’ [CP 629].
Part of a manuscript, undated, of an untitled poem, published as ‘The Poet as Prophet’. [CP 1372].
Part of a manuscript, undated, of an untitled poem, beginning ‘Since no other organs can be specifically referred to intuition/ as in the case of instinct/’.
Part of a manuscript, undated, of an untitled poem, beginning ‘Muscail do mhisneach a Alba!/’, which includes part of ‘The Battle Continues’ [CP 940] and of ‘The Kind of Poetry I Want’ [CP 1033], and ‘Of William Johnstone’s Art’ [CP 1073, 1366, 1399].
Manuscript draft, undated, of a foreword or introduction, and part of a manuscript, undated, of a poem beginning ‘Transition from one chain of verbo-motor associations/’, which includes
‘Painter’ [CP 1398], and a substantial quoted passage concerning the West Highland Railway Line.
Part of a manuscript, undated, of an untitled poem, which is preceded by a prose passage which begins ‘He recalls that Heidegger, Buber, and others had come to his mind earlier, and thinks of them again, in relation to the function of poetry and social responsibility of poets...’. This includes `Further Passages From “The Kind of Poetry I want”’ [CP 616-25], ‘The Song of the Seraphim' [CP 638], and ‘Direadh III’ [CP 1186].
Part of a manuscript, undated, which is mainly a prose piece of an autobiographical nature, and which includes `Glasgow, 1960' [CP 1039].
Prose:
Manuscript, undated, of ‘Author’s Note’, beginning ‘I am a member of the Communist Part of Great Britain...’.
Review, undated, of Mind in the Making by James Harvey Robinson.
Dates
- Creation: Circa 1920-1970.
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
Normal access conditions apply.
Conditions Governing Use
Normal reproduction conditions apply, subject to any copyright restrictions.
Extent
1 Folders
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Bought, 1997, K D Duval, Pitlochry.
Genre / Form
- Title
- National Library of Scotland Catalogue of Manuscripts
- Author
- National Library of Scotland
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Local Descriptive Rules
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division Repository
Archives and Manuscript Division
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EJ
0131 623 3700
manuscripts@nls.uk