Yes and no. I always thought of him as a poet I would like to like:
when he was alive I would look at each book hoping that this time ...
some of the Ikey Faa stuff he did, yes, some of the collisions of
primitive statement, yes, but ... the poem Jon has quoted, it's ok,
but behind lurks the spectre of stock association.
I thought the second stanza best. 'outsplendours' oh dear, no. He
falls for Parnassian a lot (vide Hopkins on Tennyson for that term)
If I compare Mackay Brown to Garioch then the latter gets my vote.
One has to be very ginger in handling the notion of vanished worlds.
One might end up in Akenfield.
Best
Dave
2008/8/25 Judy Prince <[log in to unmask]>:
> Yes, it is damned good.
>
> 2008/8/25 Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> Saw from a notice in the London Review of Books that The Collected
>> Poems of George Mackay Brown is available in paperback (John Murray
>> 2006). which I hadn't known about. I've admired his poetry in the
>> past, so will have look at this. The notice in the LRB quotes a
>> little:
>>
>> ---------
>> The lamp is needful in spring, still,
>> Though the jar of daffodils
>> Outsplendours lamplight and hearthflames.
>>
>> In summer only near midnight
>> Is match struck to wick.
>> A moth, maybe, troubles the rag of flame.
>>
>> Harvest. The lamp in the window
>> Summons the scythe-men.
>> A school-book lies on the sill, two yellow halves.
>>
>> In December the lamp's a jewel,
>> The hearth ingots and incense.
>> A cold star travels across the pane.
>> ---------
>>
>> That is damned good. I suppose though that world is gone now.
>>
>>
>> --
>> ===============================================
>>
>> Jon Corelis http://jcorelis.googlepages.com/joncorelis
>>
>> ===============================================
>>
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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