Skip to main content

Poetry.

 Subject
Subject Source: Local sources
Scope Note: Literary and oral genre rooted in the compressed and cogent imaginative awareness or associations of experiences, ideas, or emotional responses and arranged under an organized criterion of meaning, conscious and unconscious expression, symbolism, formal or informal pattern, sound, and rhythm. The genre encompasses narrative, dramatic, satiric, didactic, erotic, and personal forms. (AAT) All poetry, except ballads, was indexed under this heading in the published catalogues. (NLS) .

Found in 2772 Collections and/or Records:

"Journal of a few days from home in the summer of 1856 with selected poetry and songs".

 Item
Identifier: MS.9233
Scope and Contents The author was born near Dover, and describes himself as a 'middle class man engaged in the business of life', possibly a doctor or lawyer. After a brief stay in Edinburgh, he visited Perth, Bannockburn, Callander, Inversnaid, Glasgow, Oban, Inveraray, and Rothesay, and returned again to Glasgow. The text is interspersed with poetry and songs, and is profusely illustrated with floral cut-outs, small prints, and water-colours, mainly of views. Three pages and some of the illustrations have...
Dates: 1856.

Journal of J Ker, Surgeon in the Royal Navy.

 Item
Identifier: MS.1083
Scope and Contents

The Naval log is illustrated by sketches of ships, scenery, antiquities, etc., and accompanied by several poems and a dissertation on the putrid fever of St Lucia (folio 27). The scenes and incidents described include the West Indies, 1778-1779; Denmark and Zetland, 1780; the loss of the ‘Royal George’, 1782; and the battle of Cape St Vincent.

Dates: 1778-1782.

Journal of Lieutenant David Aytoun, Royal Navy, on H.M.S. Dragon in the Mediterranean, with various notes, observations and copies of correspondence.

 File
Identifier: MS.13598
Scope and Contents The manuscript includes descriptions of Lisbon, Gibraltar and Minorca, the dimensions of the masts and yards of H.M.S. Dragon, religious notes, verses, copies of David Aytoun's letters and memorials requesting promotion, and Aytoun's curriculum vitae, which includes a list of the ships on which he served. Aytoun, a younger brother of the laird of Kinnaldie, joined the Royal Navy on 12 May 1729, as a Midshipman, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 13 October 1738. He went on...
Dates: 1743-1746.

Journals, letters, manuscripts, notes, verse and other papers of and relating to Alastair Cram.

 Collection
Identifier: Acc.13170
Scope and Contents Alastair Cram was educated at Perth Academy and Edinburgh University and started his working life as a solicitor in private practice at the Scottish Bar. In the Second World War he saw service with the Royal Regiment of Artillery and SAS during which time he was taken prisoner and was involved in several successful escapes. Alastair Cram was awarded the Military Cross in 1945. In peacetime, he served as a Judge in Kenya and, in 1965, was Governor-General of Malawi. Alastair Cram was also a...
Dates: 1928-1967, and undated.

‘Kirk manuscripts’, copies of papers on ecclesiastical history, originally marked ‘C’., 17th century-18th century.

 File
Identifier: Adv.MS.34.5.10
Scope and Contents The contents include the following: (i) The history of the Episcopal See of St. Andrews till 1689, written after 1704; (ii) A transcript of Balcarras’ memoirs; (iii) A collection of papers chiefly concerning the troubles of the Church in the middle of the 17th century; (iv) Copies of sew charters & other writs of subjects in Anstruther; (v) Several papers regarding the death and character of Mr James Melville; (vi) Devotional poetry; (vii) Notes for sermons or lectures; (viii) Religious...
Dates: 17th century-18th century.

‘Kirk manuscripts’, copies of very miscellaneous papers on ecclesiastical history.

 Series
Identifier: Adv.MSS.34.5.8-11
Scope and Contents

According to the folio catalogue (F.R.186) the volumes were originally marked ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’.

The description of the manuscripts in the folio catalogue (F.R.186) includes the reference: Jac.5.7.7-10.

Dates: 17th century-18th century.

‘La tina, equivoci rusticali’ by Antonio Malatesti.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.3.40
Scope and Contents

‘La tina, equivoci rusticali di Antonio Malatesti composti rella ana villa di Taiano il Settembre dell l’anno 1637. Sonetti cinquȃta. Dedicati all gelmo Signore et Padrone Onmo il Signor Giananni Milton Nobil’ inghilese’.

Prefixed to this manuscript written and presented to the illustrious Milton in 1637, is a note by Thomas Hollis Esq, respecting it, and an account of the author in the handwriting of Signor Baretti, in 1758.

Dates: 1637.

Lament for Archibald of Keppoch., ca. 1945

 File
Identifier: Acc.13865/6
Scope and Contents

Drafts of text and translation of "Cumha Ghille-Easbuig na Ceapaich" ("Lament for Archibald of Keppoch")

Dates: ca. 1945

Late 10th-century manuscript, produced in England, which contains a selection of the poetry of Coelius Sedulius, with glosses in Latin and Old English.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.18.7.7
Scope and Contents The manuscript contains prefatory matter (‘Hoc opus Sedulii` etc., J Huemer in ‘Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum’, x, page vii note; ‘Sedulius epistola ... utilitati`, Huemer, page xi; `istud sequens` etc., Huemer, page xxii; poem of Turcius Rufus Asterius, Huemer, page 307, and ‘Anthologia Latina’ 491; `Sedulius versificus` etc., Huemer, page viii note; `mos est poetarum` etc., Huemer, page xxii); the letter to Macedonicus; the preface of the `Carmen paschale`, called...
Dates: Late 10th century.

Late 13th-century manuscript in Greek, written in Constantinople in the circle of Maximus Planudes, probably by Planudes himself, containing 'Meteora' by Cleomedes, and 'Phaenomena' by Aratus.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.18.7.15
Scope and Contents The manuscript was written in Constantinople in the circle of Maximus Planudes, probably by Planudes himself (cf. ‘Dated Greek manuscripts of the 13th and 14th centuries in the libraries of Italy’, volume 1, page xvii).(i) ‘Meteora’ by Cleomedes. (Folio 1).(ii) `Phaenomena’ by Aratus, with preliminary material and scholia. The preliminary material comprises: προοίμιον (folio 55; Anon II 1), γένος ’Αράτου (folio 58; Anon II 5, Vita III), and ἀστροθεσίαι ξωδίων (folio...
Dates: Circa 1290.

Late 14th- or early 15th-century manuscript of the ‘Roman de la Rose’, written in two stages by Guillaume de Lorris, circa 1230, and Jean de Meun, circa 1270.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.1.7
Scope and Contents During the 14th century, a great number of manuscripts of the ‘Roman de la Rose’ were produced. Many of them were very richly illustrated, as this one would have been, had the illustration scheme been completed. The fact that so many manuscripts of the work were commissioned is accounted for by the great popularity of the text, which was at the time one of the major standards of the elite culture. At the beginning of the 15th century however, perhaps because of its outstanding success, it...
Dates: Late 14th to early 15th century.

Late 15th-century manuscript of 'Il Ninfale fiesolano' by Giovanni Boccaccio.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.2.13
Scope and Contents Late 15th-century manuscript produced in Italy containing 'Il Ninfale', or 'The Nymph of Fiesole', of Giovanni Boccaccio, written in ottava rima.The manuscript is the work of one scribe, written in an Italian round hand.Balduino states that the manuscript is incomplete in places and not arranged in the correct order.The work starts on folio 2r and runs to folio 94r.The colophon on folio 94r reads: 'Finito ellibro chiamato ninfale'....
Dates: Late 15th century.

Late 15th-century manuscript of 'The oryginale cronykil of Scotland', or 'Original Chronicle', of Andrew Wyntoun.

 Item
Identifier: Adv.MS.19.2.3
Scope and Contents Manuscript produced in Scotland containing 'The oryginale cronykil of Scotland', or Original Chronicle, of Andrew Wyntoun. The work is a vernacular history of Scotland and the world in the form of a metrical poem. This work is divided into 9 Books with chapters.In Amours' edition of Wyntoun's work, this manuscript is referred to as E1, or the First Edinburgh Manuscript. Scholars have generally dated it to the end of the 15th century. Amours, Laing, and Borland suggest dates of...
Dates: Late 15th century.

Law book compiled by James Blair of Ballindean, Writer in Perth.

 Item
Identifier: MS.5898
Scope and Contents Law book compiled by James Blair of Ballindean, Writer in Perth (folio 28), and subsequently belonging to Robert Blair, Writer in Errol (folio 176 verso).The contents are as follows.(i) Style-book of Scots Law forms based on examples collected in and around Perth (folio 5); preceded by two indices (folios 1 verso, 3).(ii) Latin verses, 1683, entitled 'Carmina auditu digna', possibly written by James Blair. (Folio 92.)(iii) Recipes for dyeing...
Dates: 1682-1683.

‘Lays and lyrics’ by Charles Gray (Edinburgh, 1841) with pencil and wash illustrations, 1846, of A A Ritchie.

 File
Identifier: MS.15947
Scope and Contents

At the back of the volume, “A familiar Epistle, addressed to Peter M'Leod, Esq., of Polbeth” by Charles Gray (Edinburgh, 1845) has been bound in.

There are also manuscript verses by A A Ritchie (folio 1), class certificates, 1833-1834, of Charles Gray's son, Charles E Gray, from St Andrews University (folio 3) and a newspaper article, 1845, on Gray's poetry (folio 9).

Dates: 1833-1846.