Perhaps this turns on a divergence over "language" -- I don't think David
(H) is arguing that Graham spoke Gaelic, but that he made a choice of
English rather than Scots.
> Occasionally Scottish slang attached to these
> reconstituted places but it was always in support of the English which he
> cajoled, entreated, objected to, turned this way and that....
>
> David Howard
A lot of Scots poets of roughly W.S.Graham's generation turned, in the wake
of MacDiarmid, to writing in various kinds of Scots -- though for all of me
the only one any good at this was Robert Garrioch. In that sense, Graham's
linguistic choice is one that's mostly followed be the next generation --
Edwin Morgan (who, I think, has published some correspondence with Graham),
McCaig, et alia.
There's also a long essay in _Lines Review_ -- can't remember the issue
off-hand -- where Tom Leonard writes on Graham, so his influence is still
pretty immediate.
David (and dave) -- how do you react to the earlier stuff, up to "The
Nightfishing"? Much as I love MML, and thereafter, I can't seem to get into
the pre-1950s work at all.
(Incidentally, there's a lovely Faber paperback _Collected_ which, I hope,
is still in print. +Well+ worth getting.)
Robin
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